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

I thank all of those who spoke. Including this week, last week and in the Seanad, there have been more than 12.5 hours of debate and questions on the migration pact, as well as numerous debates in this House prior to that and questions at the Oireachtas committee. I have listened to and been part of all those debates and responded to questions any time I have been asked. When we are talking about this, as many colleagues have said, we are talking about people and about putting structures and systems in place that are and should be there to protect some of the most vulnerable people across the globe, while making sure we are firm and fair with people who come here for other reasons and clear that there are legal pathways for work but, most importantly, for those who genuinely need our help and protection, that we are able to provide it for them.

As many colleagues stated, we live in an unsettled world. It is a scary place for many people. We see wars happening across the globe. In Europe, the Middle East and many parts of Africa, people are fleeing war, prosecution, starvation, climate catastrophe and discrimination. We have an obligation to protect them and provide shelter and safety. It is something we as a country have always stood up to and not something we will shy away from. Nobody here, I hope, is suggesting we should walk away from the Geneva Convention, which was put in place after the Second World War to make sure that every country would offer safe haven and a safe space to people who needed them.

We cannot do this on our own because it is a global challenge. There are millions of people on the move seeking a better life, shelter and safety. We need to work with colleagues across Europe, and that is exactly what we have been doing. That is not something that has just appeared; it is something that we have worked on for many years. We have worked to develop it, enhance it and set out the different measures and structures we are debating today in the context of the pact. It is not being forced on us, and I push back against any suggestion this is taking away our sovereignty or being forced on us. The Irish people voted clearly when they supported the Lisbon treaty that when it came to matters of security or migration, we could opt in to any measures at European level. We are choosing to opt in to measures that we believe as a Government, having negotiated them, will be beneficial for the country and for those who need our protection and support.

I respectfully ask the many colleagues here and in the Seanad who have said we should go it alone and not joint this pact, how? How do we do this ourselves when there are millions of people on the move and this is a global challenge? We are talking about people. Nobody has presented any options. Nobody has said how we do this on our own. Every Sinn Féin Deputy has repeated the same thing: we need a common sense approach, a common decency approach and a fair, efficient and enforced system. That is exactly what we are talking about with the pact. That is what I have been doing for the past number of years, investing in our system.

The first one will lead to faster processing and common procedures across the EU. What does that mean? That means for somebody coming from a country with an approval rate of less than 20%, in other words, a safe country, that everybody would apply the same rules on the same timeline. It would be shorter, quicker and more efficient, meaning that people who genuinely need protection get it quickly and that the same rule applies across the EU. If they are not entitled to it, they get the negative decision just as quickly, making it easier to enforce our rules and remove people from the country. That is what the pact is proposing: common asylum procedures. It also means if somebody has protection in another country, we can return them to that country more efficiently, something Deputies and Senators have been calling for. The pact means we have better access to more information on the people coming here, so we know who they are and have a better idea of whether they pose a risk, although we have to push back on untruths and the misinformation that these people are coming here to create havoc. They are coming here because they want a better life and safety, but it is important that we know who is here and share that information with our colleagues. It also proposes that we have minimum standards in order that no matter which country a person arrives in, there will be: minimum reception conditions, including for accommodation; that we have similar rules and criteria when agreeing international protection; and that we have solidarity.

Sinn Féin proposes a pick-and-mix solution. We will get information from our European colleagues and sent people back to other European countries but we will not show any solidarity to them in response. We know there are countries under immense pressure because of the number of people travelling to mainland Europe.

We need to show that solidarity because we know that we may need that in return in years to come. Also, we can access funding. We can make sure that in investing in our systems, by opting into these measures, we can we access funding to improve the structures in the systems that we already have. We also would agree to safe and legal pathways for people to resettle here. I ask every Deputy and Senator who said that he or she does not support it or agree with it, what does he or she not agree with in everything that I have outlined or what is not beneficial, no only for Ireland but for other countries?

I accept that concerns have been raised in respect of human rights and making sure that people are protected. All I can say is that at the very beginning of and during this entire negotiation, everything that has been discussed and developed has taken into account the fundamental rights of protection applicants. In addition, provision is made for the specific needs of vulnerable protection applicants, particularly children. We make sure through the pact that at the very early stages but throughout the various different processes, people will have access to legal counselling. They are not currently entitled to this but it is a measure contained in the pact. There are also safeguards for vulnerable people in the building blocks of the common implementation plan, which was only published last week and which I spoke to my European colleagues about in the company of Commissioner Ylva Johansson. All of this is built with human rights at its heart, making sure that the people who genuinely need our protection will get it and that in the case of people who do not, we are firm and fair and that we create other legal pathways for people to come here.

It is not that this work is only starting either. There has been major investment. Some €34 million was secured last year by me and my Department to invest in the international protection system. We have doubled the number of staff. It has meant that we have tripled the output in terms of the number of cases being heard. We have seen a 40% reduction in the number of people coming through our ports and airports where they have either got rid of their documents or are on false documents, because of the work that I have been doing working with the airports, with the airlines, with the liaison officers and with the Garda. I have introduced an accelerated procedure which means that people coming from particular safe countries are getting their decisions much more quickly. Since that has been introduced, we have seen a massive reduction in the number of people coming from these countries. I am not waiting for the pact. The pact is there, and we will sign up to it with the agreement of the House. We will continue with this work. Again, what is in the pact that people disagree with in the context of what I have just outlined? These are all of the things that people have been calling for, that they want. We are not handing over sovereignty. We are choosing to do this because this is the only way that we can respond to what is a global challenge.

Some Deputies have consistently repeated mistruths about Ireland being forced to take tens of thousands of people, about being forced to pay fines of hundreds of millions of euro or about the notion that we could pull away from obligations in respect of supporting and protecting international protection applicants. This is not true. Given the sensitivity of what we are discussing, the fact that we are talking about people's lives and the fact that there is outright racism and divisiveness in our society because of this, we have a real opportunity. There is an obligation on us to make sure that we speak the truth when we are talking about the facts.

Many Deputies raised the fact that we have people coming from the UK as well. It is not one or the other. It is clear to the EU - this was outlined in the withdrawal agreement - that we have a special relationship. We have a special agreement, especially in the context of the common travel area. The pact does not in any way impinge on that. We have arrangements with the UK that will remain in place. Where they need to be amended, they can be. I point to the fact that migratory flow challenges change and that we respond and deal with them.

Some of the other issues were raised. As to what is stopping us from upgrading our system now, the answer is nothing. We are doing all this now. As to why we should opt in if other countries are not, other than Denmark, every other country is bound by this. Denmark can opt out of the Schengen measures but it is not choosing to do that at all. We are choosing to do this because we want to work with our partners in respect of what is a global challenge.

There were also questions about legal pathways. First and foremost, inward migration has always been good for this country. To try and separate the two - the suggestion that people who are coming as international protection applicants do not have something to contribute, do not have skills, expertise and knowledge and do not want to work as well - is simply not correct. We need to look at it as a whole. There are separate pathways by which people can come but inward migration as a whole will continue to be positive for this country.

Last week, I had the honour of speaking at six different citizenship ceremonies over two days. There were also two ceremonies the week before. Over 10,000 new Irish citizens from 150 different countries were involved. There were many people who came here on visas - many came to work - but there were also many people there who were international protection applicants who came here seeking a safe life, who now have built a life, who contribute to our society and who enrich it. That should always be to the fore of every discussion that we have when we talk about migration here.

This migration pact is positive for this country. It is also positive for those who genuinely need our protection and our help. It is a way of making sure that we have a structure and a system in place to respond to what is a global challenge. I ask Deputies to consider that when voting tomorrow.

See this speech in context