Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McGrath for raising this matter. The EU pact on migration and asylum will be a game-changer for Ireland. It will speed up the processing of asylum seekers so that we have a firmer and fairer system. It will make it easier to return those who are found not to be entitled to protection. It will introduce greater security checking of applicants. Ireland cannot do this on its own. We need co-operation and we need other countries to be willing to accept people who should not be processed here. It does not mean that the EU will make the decisions for us. This pact offers us all in Europe a real opportunity to work together to design a system that is firm but fair, based on a fair sharing of responsibility that works for everyone.

We are not waiting for the pact to take effect to make changes. There is a significant increase in processing in the International Protection Office. There is accelerated processing for designated safe countries, with eight further countries under review. That has reduced applications from those countries by 50%. Steps have been taken to reduce the numbers arriving without documents and there has been a reduction of 34%. The review of airline fines is under way. Plane doorstep operations are under way. We have introduced visa controls on a number of additional countries, with further countries under review. We have increased the focus on assisting people to leave.

The Dáil and the Seanad are fully debating approving Ireland's request to opt into the pact. Extra speaking time has been allocated for this week. If approved, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, will start to prepare the general scheme of new legislation to replace the International Protection Act 2015 and an implementation plan will be launched. When that new scheme is complete and prepared, that will go through both Houses of the Oireachtas. It will be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny and then go through the Dáil and the Seanad. There will be plenty more opportunity for people to give their views on it.

The Deputy referred to our health service. The Deputy and I well know that our health service would not operate without migration into this country. We benefit every day-----

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