Mr. Enda O'Neill:

With all instruments, there are areas of concern. There are positive elements, which includes that one.

One of the concerns with that is timelines, delaying registration and things such as that. It is important that people can get a decision on their merits. The safe third country concept was mentioned. That is still optional. It is not mandatory on states and it still requires a connection to a country. If a person transits through another country, that would be sufficient to say that person’s case is inadmissible and the case would not be considered on its merits. The only caveat I would add to that is that there was political agreement that the question would be looked at again in 2025. It is something we will have to review in the future. In its current form in the pact, we are satisfied that at least the application of that concept is optional and it still requires someone to have a real link to that country - just passing over a border would not be sufficient.