Mr. Barry Andrews:

I thank the Chairman. I am delighted that we have been invited to speak to the committee and share our views. I was a member of the committee back in the day. In fact, I was Vice Chairman so I am well aware of its value in communicating what happens in the European Union to the interested Irish public.

In my submission, I made a point about EU scrutiny. A sub-committee of the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs dealt with scrutiny, but that now happens across all of the committees. I read about this matter and discovered that in 2017, the most recent year for which I could find figures, 455 proposals came from the EU and just seven reports were generated. It strikes me that in a post-Brexit situation where Whitehall is not available to us to X-ray all of the proposed and current legislation, the Oireachtas will need to up its game. We certainly need to reflect on whether the Oireachtas has the tools to properly scrutinise what is being proposed and how it might impact on the Irish economy and life more generally. There is much more qualified majority voting now. The Council of Ministers may not be as influential as it used to be. There are many more EU competencies. There is reason to reflect again on whether we have the necessary tools.

On migration, the pact is about asylum rather than migration. I made the point in my submission that they are two different things. When it comes to migration, people are leaving for a better life. Those seeking asylum are fleeing for their lives. We need to make a clear distinction between the two. The pact is mostly about asylum and tries to deal with the Dublin regulation and the lack of solidarity for those countries that are on the front line of irregular population movements into the south and east of Europe.

It does that in a couple of ways. For Ireland it may mean a relocation and resettlement system that will be much fairer and have a greater degree of solidarity. There are a lot of shortcomings with that. There is a proposal around screening at external borders where there will be very serious human rights concerns. There will be concerns around the idea that member states can simply opt out of resettlement and relocation by sponsoring returns. I am not sure what exactly is meant by EU solidarity around asylum.

There is a lot to be sorted out. A raft of legislative measures will come before the Parliament and Council in due course. Going back to my original point, there will be a lot to scrutinise for the Oireachtas. I hope that answers the Senator's question.