Mr. David Leonard:

I thank the Cathaoirleach and the committee for the invitation to attend today. Some people fear the pact will lead to greater migration flows into Ireland and are concerned the European Court of Justice will now have the final say on interpreting the substance of asylum law. In reality, that has been the position since the original qualification directive in 2006, and that power residing in Luxembourg has not caused any problems for the State.

Concerns have been raised that new burden-sharing obligations will lead to greater flows of people here. However, any burden-sharing may be a proportionate price of remaining within the European club when it comes to asylum and immigration.

Some advocacy groups are concerned that the system will be less fair. However, several key improvements in procedural fairness can be identified. The asylum interview must now be the subject of a video or audio recording which must be shared with applicants and their lawyers before the decision is made. This is an improvement in fairness. If applicants claim that inconsistencies in their accounts were down to a bad interpreter, that can be objectively checked, helping applicants where there was a genuine interpretation error. It will help the authorities if the interpretation difficulty was simply manufactured. There is a new EU law right to have relevant documents translated. There is a fairer test for whether an applicant should be permitted to make a subsequent application. These improvements are not push factors that will attract more applicants, rather, they are procedural improvements that should lead to fewer judicial reviews.

Concerns around the border procedure have been raised by some advocacy groups. However, a reading of the relevant provisions shows that the border procedure manifestly does not mean mandatory detention. It is clearly and unambiguously stated in the proposed law that the border procedure must enable a complete and fair examination of claims. The courts both in Dublin and in Luxembourg will not shy away from condemning any implementation of the border procedure that leads to unfairness.

There is no interest group on either side that is entirely happy with the pact. This is not necessarily a sign that it is bad, rather, this may indicate an imperfect consensus based on compromise. When upgrading a computer network it is dangerous to leave one computer running the old software. There is a risk to Ireland's interests if we are left running the old version of EU legislation, crudely tacked on to the new legislation in force everywhere else. The edges of the old system not seamlessly meeting those of the new is the sort of thing that could easily lead to generic judicial review arguments, applicable in every case, that could cause paralysis in decision making.