Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are now gardaí in airports in other parts of Europe working with authorities there. We increasingly check people coming off planes, not just at border control. We are liaising with airlines to make sure their staff are properly trained. There are fines which we impose on airlines if they allow people onto aircraft undocumented. We are seeing a reduction in the number of people coming through Dublin Airport undocumented. We estimate, and believe based on evidence, that the majority of people who seek international protection in Ireland come across the Border from north to south. I do not think anyone is suggesting we close the Border between the North and South. Of course, they go in the other direction too. That is the reality of the situation.

The Deputy said two things that require at least a degree of correction and explanation. Some 40% of people who apply for international protection get it. That is not far off half. We need to bear in mind when people see a group of migrants coming into the country that roughly half of them are determined by our system as deserving of international protection. It is not a small minority; it is 40%, which is not far off half. That is why we need to make sure we assess everybody's application fairly. If somebody comes to an airport without documents, they are sent back. However, if they apply for international protection, in that scenario, they are allowed to have their application heard fairly. Unless the Deputy is suggesting that we leave the UN and exempt ourselves from international law and become some of a hermit kingdom, that will continue to be the case. That is just not common sense.

It is not always the case that people destroy their documents. We do not find destroyed documents in bins or bathrooms. What happens is that they are trafficked into the country and the person who trafficked them takes the IDs off them at a certain point, probably while they are still on the plane. We are doing everything we can to crack down on trafficking. That is why it is so important that we are part of the EU asylum pact because we can only do that on a multilateral basis.

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