Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

-----people coming across the Border at the moment and it is pointless. It is window dressing. There are 290 roads North to South. There are 10,000 fields North to South. Bringing people back to Newry does not mean they are not going to find another route into the State. The fact that Sinn Féin has supported that particular element of the Government's policy is also incredible as the raison d'être of the party was supposed to be to erase the Border, yet four times in the recent European election campaign, Sinn Féin candidates stated they agreed with the Government's policy of spot checks on the Border for people coming into the country, which is again quite incredible.

Another potential reason there is a high number of people registering at the IPO is people trafficking and people smuggling. As the Government is not measuring that, it means we were not able to tackle that. Another issue is people staying in this State on expired visas. I asked the Minister just two months ago how many people were currently residing in this State on expired visas and she said she did not know. She said we had no mechanism to check the exit of people from the State. Again, it is quite incredible that this answer was given just two months ago.

The EU migration pact is another massive transfer of sovereignty. Nobody knows what the future will hold. We do not know the numbers or the cost. However, at least if we can determine our response to it, we can control the issues of numbers and cost. However, the pact creates a mandatory pool. States must contribute to this on the basis of the fair share principle. It means we have to contribute either financially or be in receipt of people coming in to this country. That undoubtedly creates a situation where we could have to pay significant money to meet our responsibilities under the pact. Second, the pact can be changed in the future and we would not have the ability to stop that change because it will happen under majority vote. We are signing ourselves up not just to the current regime indicated in the EU migration, but to a potential change in the future that we would not be able to resile from as well.

I asked the Taoiseach how much the European migration pact will cost the State and he stated he does not know. This is an astounding admission. It was probably the first blank cheque he actually signed up to in this Government. The Government is committing to the European migration pact and telling us it does not know. Spending other people's money is something the Government does very well. We can see that right through a range of different projects. However, already the Government is breaking so many commitments it has to the European Union that it is being fined tens of millions of euro on an annual basis to pay for those broken commitments. The environmental commitments we have made for 2030 are going to be an example where we will have to spend potentially hundreds of millions of euros in fines due to not meeting those commitments. Here we have the Government hardwiring into new commitments for which there will be a cost. Poland and Hungary already stated they do not support this and they are unlikely to fully fulfil this. The EU has stated that there will be fines and penalties for countries that do not implement the pact. Many of the provisions in this pact that could be good for this country could already be done by the Government. We, in Aontú, have long highlighted the fact that the Government spends such a length of time processing people, which is neither fair on them or to the State, and actually creates a cost to the State in that regard. Speeding up that process is in the Government's gift currently. All it needs is the resources to provide for it. The fact that, up until about last year, thousands of people were waiting two or three years for their first application to be processed is incredible, and given that it can take up to ten years when appeals are made, this shows just how dysfunctional the system over which the Government presides is. Many of those things that are positive in the pact could be delivered by the Government.

The Taoiseach said we are only a small country in the middle of the ocean and that we cannot go it alone, but I am sure people said the same to James Connolly and Pádraig Pearse regarding Irish sovereignty as well. We are better off being able to work co-operatively with other countries but not in a situation where there are mandatory requirements that we do not control.

The inability of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to provide accommodation has led to significant problems in this country. He purchased 30 buildings two years ago for the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers. One of them is in use. Again, this is another example of a Government unable to deliver serious infrastructure in Ireland. I have spoken to many immigrants in recent times and they have told me their lives have changed for the worse in this country. They have told me they are receiving a high level of abuse and attacks, both verbally and physically, in Ireland.

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