Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will raise the current situation in Drogheda for the simple reason it highlights some of the Government's failures in dealing with immigration. The Minister is more than familiar with the problems the Government has caused there.

The two main hotels in the town are being used to house refugees and international protection applicants. That is a loss of more than 60% of accommodation beds in the town during the past two years and Drogheda is the largest town in Ireland. It is disastrous for Drogheda, for local businesses and the local community who might want to hold events locally, for tourism and the list goes on.

It was all done without any prior consultation whatsoever with community or public representatives. We were told after the fact. It speaks to the utter chaos of the Government's policy to date showing no regard for local economies, communities or businesses and showing no forward thinking or planning. This wholesale opting in to the EU migration pact is more of the same, jumping in feet first and acting against Ireland's interests because the EU told us to.

The Minister for Justice even admitted she did not even consider whether Ireland would adopt some parts of the pact and not others. The Government is ignoring the unique situation we have in Ireland due to the common travel area with Britain. It is because of the common travel area that we have the option to opt out. It is an opportunity to maintain control and flexibility now and into the future and to make our own decisions about migration that are properly managed and ensure fairness and common decency. Why would we reject that?

Human rights organisations have outlined concerns around provisions for detention centres for vulnerable people seeking asylum and rightly so. We cannot actually sign up to a migration pact that does not meet international human rights standards but the Government is quite prepared to do that.

We welcome migrants into our communities, our lives and our workplaces. They have a huge part to play and have so much to offer to local communities and society. We should call out racism wherever we hear or see it and should never stop doing that. However, we also need rules around managing migration and this Government has failed to bring forward a fair and enforceable system. We need faster processing times for asylum applications and a clear plan of action for failed applications and we need to be able to manage the situation as it changes as we see fit as a country. The migration pact does not allow for any of this.

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