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

There are two separate things with regard to the safe countries, but I can provide the ways in which they are applied. We now have 15 countries deemed to be safe countries of origin. I hope this legislation will be enacted and the requirements of the High Court ruling met. Then we will need to revisit the question of the UK. However, we do not want to rush into it without engaging with our new counterparts across the water in the UK. It is important that we can return people to a country where we know it is safe for them and where they already have a connection or status. At the same time, it is important to ensure safeguards are in place to make sure they are safe when they return, their rights are upheld and they have the right to apply for international protection. These amendments will do that and rectify the situation.

With respect to the IPAT members and the changes being made - this is specific to people who are not practising - there are people who have years of experience working in this space but do not have experience of practising for that length of time. They cannot apply their knowledge, skills or expertise. There will be a rigorous system for people applying and a rigorous recruitment process to make sure that anyone who comes through has the relevant expertise or knowledge. However, it opens it up and ensures more people can apply for these roles. It has been more challenging to increase the staff in IPAT at the same rate as I have been able to double the staff in the International Protection Office. This will not in any way remove the need for qualifications, criteria and expertise in this area, but it opens it up to a number of people who may have expertise, but do not meet the practising criteria in place at the moment. The level of experience is also in line with many of the other tribunals we have and it works well in those areas.

If an issue emerges, we can look at and address it but I am satisfied these criteria are strong enough that we have good, qualified people who want to work in the area and will assist us with what is quite a challenging and difficult workload at present.

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