Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I have to answer because the Senator said theoretically and in practice. In practice, that figure is only in recent months. It was not the case last year that 13,000 or 80% came from the UK. That figure has only escalated in recent months. That is the case now and if we apply the figure from this year, due to a recent court ruling, returns to the UK have been paused. That High Court ruling will be addressed. I will have a miscellaneous provisions Bill in the coming weeks that will address it, which will mean that we will be able to return people. We have a mechanism in place to return people to the UK where they have applied for asylum. However, it is not the case that 80% would be going back to the UK because many have come from the EU as well. They started in the EU and through the screening procedure that will be in place under the migration and asylum pact, we will be able to identify more quickly and in a better way that people have applied in an EU country, gone to the UK and then come here. It is also the case that while at the moment we cannot return people to the UK, we can return them to their countries of origin. It is not the case that we cannot return anyone anywhere.