Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)

Regarding the first point the Deputy made, it is an absolute rule under the 1951 Refugee Convention that you cannot contact the country of origin of a person - hear me out on this - who is claiming asylum. It never happens in Ireland that the International Protection Office or the Government would contact the country of origin and say, "By the way, this person is claiming asylum for X." It does not happen.

With regard to the full detail, if it was the case I had come here to ask members to agree to a readmission agreement between the EU and Kazakhstan and I said, "Sorry, you cannot see the full detail of it", that would be unacceptable and outrageous, but I am not doing that. All I am asking is that Ireland be given permission to allow us to opt into negotiations and the European Commission to commence negotiations with Kazakhstan. We commence negotiations all the time and that is all we are doing here. There is a benefit in doing it that way for us. If an agreement is reached and we do not like what we see in that agreement, we can vote against it but, if there is an agreement reached, it will come back to members here who will be able to read the whole thing and have their democratic say.