Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will continue to be clear that this pact is not being forced on anyone. It was first presented in 2016, with a second iteration in 2020. During every stage of the debate, be it in the European Parliament, the European Council, the committee of justice or the European affairs ministers Council, which I was a member of a number of years ago, opportunities were available to Members of this House and the Seanad to discuss issues under Topical Issue Debates, Commencement matters, Private Members’ business and other forms of debate.

The pact will ensure that we have a system that is more effective than our current one. Of course, we are already working towards accelerated procedures. In the past two years alone, we have gone from processing approximately 3,000 applications per year to 13,000, with 9,000 people receiving a first instance decision last year. We have been able to increase our figures to that scale. If we opt into the EU pact in the next two weeks, which I hope we will, we will invest more to ensure we can meet the turnaround times that are set out and that we should be adhering to in the first instance.

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