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

It is a really important debate we are having today, and I am pleased to have the opportunity to outline the benefits of the migration and asylum pact and to outline once again and to stress that inward migration has been hugely positive for Ireland. It has provided significant benefits to our economy and to our society. We can all see this in our hospitals, in our nursing homes, in our hospitality sector and in our agriculture and food processing sectors. We only have to look at the figures. Last year alone, 31,000 employment permits were issued, more than 10,000 of which were issued to people in the health and social work sector. We all have our own stories. My little boy, when he was six months old, had to go into hospital for a number of days. Many of the staff, the doctors and nurses who looked after and minded him, were not born in Ireland or the European Union. We all see the benefits and know that so many of our sectors would be lost without these people. They also contribute significantly to our tax revenue by €3 billion every year. In discussing migration, I am also conscious that Irish people emigrated to every corner of the planet in search of a better life. For a country with a population of more than 5 million people, there are 70 million people who are part of the diaspora and claim Irish descent. Migration is clearly a part of the Irish story.

In the context of the pact we are discussing today we see more people on the move than at any time since the Second World War. War, conflict, famine, persecution, climate change and poverty are driving these people to seek a better life. The invasion of Ukraine, the war in Syria, and ongoing wars and conflicts in Africa are all driving migration. As we have heard, we are also seeing migration weaponised by countries, including Russia, that seek to undermine our democracies and radicalise political discourse. This was made clear to me in the past few days by ministers in the Scandinavian and Baltic member states, in particular, when attending the Justice and Home Affairs Council. They outlined their concerns and the challenges they are facing. What is clear from these conversations and those referenced by the Taoiseach is that we cannot deal with what is a global and European challenge on our own. The EU migration and asylum pact, which has been negotiated over many years, has now become EU law and represents the collective effort of the European Union to manage this issue and to develop an approach which is firm, but fair, while working with countries to address the root causes of migration. We are here opting into the EU migration and asylum pact. There are those who claim we can go it alone. There are those who claim that Ireland is full, but they have no plan. They have no plan to deal with this challenge and no plan to provide support for those who need it. They have no plan whatsoever.

All the while, like many countries, we have seen and continue to see a significant increase in the number of people applying for international protection. However, it is clear that our system was designed to deal with a volume of applications far lower than we are currently dealing with. Our international protection system is under considerable pressure, but we are responding. We are not waiting. We have ramped up investment in staff, introduced and accelerated our processing system and are strengthening our returns system. The pact presents a significant opportunity to further reform and improve the operation of the international protection system. The legislation we have, which is the 2015 Act, is no longer fit for purpose. Subject to motions being passed in the Dáil and Seanad, I will begin preparations for implementation of the pact, and this will include a new Bill to repeal and replace the International Protection Act 2015. This will be done in parallel with a complete re-engineering of our entire system from start to finish. We need a system that works faster, that enables people granted protection to quickly obtain status, integrate and start a new life, but also ensures the efficient removal of those who are not entitled to be here.

I will give a brief overview of the pact. First, the screening regulation will apply where a person first enters the EU irregularly or is identified in a member state without permission. Such people will be required to undergo a screening procedure within seven days at most. This will consist of identification or verification of identity. There will be health and vulnerability checks, security checks, fingerprints and registration in what is known as the Eurodac database. While we cannot opt into this measure because we are not members of Schengen, we will align our laws with this system to ensure we can benefit from the data which is gathered throughout Eurodac, while also providing this data to other member states. At the end of the screening, all people will be directed to relevant procedures. There will be four procedures, all common across the EU. There will be a border procedure, an accelerated procedure, an inadmissibility procedure and an ordinary or standard procedure.

The most significant change is the introduction of a new mandatory border procedure. This will apply to people who have misled authorities, by destroying identity documents for example, who are a danger to national security or public order, or who come from countries with a 20% or lower approval rate for asylum applications across the EU. Those who are processed under the border procedure will not be authorised to enter Ireland and will be accommodated at designated locations. Their applications must be processed within three months, and if unsuccessful, they will be removed within a further three months at most. Ireland already operates an accelerated procedure, for people from safe countries of origin, for example. Since this was introduced in November 2022, the number of people applying from these countries has dropped by 50%. The new regulation will make accelerated processing mandatory for certain applicants and include a three-month deadline for first decisions on such cases. Ireland also already operates an inadmissibility procedure, for people who have already been granted asylum elsewhere. Again, the new regulation requires decisions to be made in the first instance within two months. The ordinary procedure, which is the standard process for international protection applicants introduces a six-month deadline. We will also legislate for appeals timelines, and will, of course, be ambitious in our targets. On identity checking and secondary movements, the Eurodac regulation will give Ireland access to improved IT systems that allow us to carry out these additional checks.

The new regulation expands the scope for wider immigration purposes to include asylum applicants, irregular migrants apprehended at the border, irregular migrants found to be illegally staying, new categories for people who have disembarked following search and rescue operations and beneficiaries of temporary protection. It will also now include children aged six and above, in particular to enhance protections for children and to combat child trafficking. Accessing information on which member state is responsible will help with returning secondary movers to the correct member state. We will, importantly, have access to this security information, where applicable, from screening checks in other member states.

As a country we experience a high level of secondary movement. This is where someone applies for asylum in another member state and then applies in Ireland. The pact provides us with the legal tools necessary to ensure we can return an applicant to the first member state where an international protection application is already lodged. We have heard time and again that the Dublin III regulation is not fit for purpose. It does not work. It will be replaced by the pact. If we do not opt in, therefore, we will have absolutely no legal basis to return people to other member states. The pact will make the transfer process clear. It introduces timelines for the issuing of transfer notifications. It replaces the current take-back request with a simpler take back notification, which will reduce administrative burdens on the current system. It will allow us to identify and return secondary movers to the correct member state responsible, freeing up our own system to assist those seeking international protection swiftly and efficiently.

There are also those who say this will be a cost to Ireland. Of course, there will be a cost in making sure we can ramp up our processing. However, there will be more significant costs if we do not opt in. It is likely we would face higher levels of secondary movement, slower processing and a less efficient returns system. This would result in applicants staying much longer in accommodation and making sure we have to pay for that, as well as other supports. We would not have access to the €1 billion of funding, which will be available to member states to implement the pact across the EU. Further funding will be made available. We need to invest in the system now to make sure it does not cost us in the long run. There are Deputies in the House who say we should abandon European solidarity in favour of going it alone. There are no plans being provided for this option.

Other measures in the pact include a harmonisation of reception conditions across member states, including accommodation and subsistence provisions. Again, this is to reduce incentives for individuals to move from one member state to another. The pact also establishes a new solidarity mechanism to ensure the fair sharing of responsibility across the EU. We will decide annually how we opt into that. It is not true to say that we will have to accept 30,000 people every year, which is being said by Deputies and Senators. Nor will we be fined hundreds of millions of euro. We will be asked to accept 648 people every year or pay a financial contribution. That decision is completely up to us. Any decision to change those figures or that overall system would have to be agreed by all justice ministers across the EU. What this has done is to show solidarity with member states.

We think of those countries on the front line, where there is an unprecedented number of people seeking protection along their shores, such as Greece and Italy. We have to show solidarity and support.

Of course, we are not waiting on the pact to introduce changes. Already, I have doubled the number of staff in the International Protection Office, which has tripled the number of decisions, with further increases planned for this year and next. I introduced fast-track processing in November 2022, as I mentioned earlier, leading to a 50% reduction in applications from those countries. I have suspended visa-free travel for certain refugees and added more countries to the visa-required list. We have ensured over 3,000 doorstep operations were carried out on flights that posed a risk of irregular migration, to the end of May of this year. I am legislating to increase fines on carriers from the current maximum of €3,000 to €5,000. All these changes have meant that in the past two years, the number of people coming through our ports and airports without the correct documentation has reduced by 40%. I am freeing up 100 gardaí from back-office roles to support immigration enforcement activities, including deportations, and we have seen over recent months prosecutions for people arriving without appropriate documentation, a significant number of whom have been imprisoned.

I am continuing to look at additional measures that can be taken in the coming weeks. This includes continuing to ramp up investment in staffing and capacity. Today, I brought a memo to Cabinet setting out how we will hire 400 more staff to bring us in line and to ramp up the system from start to finish. I will complete the review of additional safe countries in the coming weeks, extend restrictions on visa-free travel for certain countries and complete a tender for charter aeroplanes to return unsuccessful applicants. All this work is under way to make sure we are ready to join the pact in two years' time.

As I have said, the pact presents us with an opportunity to completely reform and re-engineer our systems, and I ask those Deputies who are opposing it what their solutions and plans here are. I have outlined some of the benefits to Ireland from joining the pact. However, it would be remiss of me not to point out, and this goes to the Taoiseach's point, that we are a compassionate country and that we want to support those who need our protection and our help. The pact holds benefits for those applicants themselves. It will establish a faster, fairer processing of asylum applications across the EU, providing for appeals and safeguards for vulnerable people, in particular protecting children who are seeking our protection. The pact is a way for us to deal with and respond to what is a global and significant challenge, ensuring we have a system that is firm but fair - fair to those who genuinely need our protection and help but firm to those who do not. I commend this motion to the House.

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