Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It was reported at the weekend that the cost to the Irish taxpayer of taking unlimited numbers of Ukrainian refugees alone will be over €5.5 billion just to get us to the middle of 2024. To make matters worse the Government will pay €1.5 million of taxpayers money to the EU for its failure to accommodate asylum seekers with 350 international protection applicants without accommodation. This is because the Government failed to set limits on the number of migrants this country can realistically accommodate. The Government failed to renegotiate a realistic plan and instead signed up to the EU voluntary solidarity mechanism which means no limits exist on the numbers of migrants that come here. Under the Government, Ireland has a wide-open door when it comes to migration. Recently, EU justice ministers voted to introduce mandatory relocation of migrants and countries which are unwilling to host them are being required to pay a fee of €20,000 for each migrant. Hungary and Poland opposed the agreement. Why would the Irish Minister for Justice vote in favour of this proposal when Ireland simply does not have housing capacity to meet the requirements? This means we must pay €20,000 for every migrant we cannot take in. This is ludicrous and an attack on every Irish person. We understand this was also discussed at the European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, 29 and 30 June with only Poland and Hungary having argued that any EU system on migration relocation should be voluntary. They said they will refuse to pay the fines. Of course it should be voluntary. Why would an Irish Government expose tax payers to tens of millions in fines?

I am also disappointed that we are not talking about fisheries. The Irish fisheries sector has taken such a hammering down the years compared with our European counterparts which have done pretty well in negotiations. When we talk about European meetings in future, I ask that fisheries come top of the agenda and not down the bottom of the agenda under the mat or under the carpet. When the Government is in there, the Ministers need to be talking and to come back with a package that will allow fishermen to survive and not with a decommissioning package.

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