Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

I want to raise the race to the bottom in migration policy that is happening right across the European Union and Europe. We witnessed it unfold over the past few days when the British Government announced that it was going to implement a Danish-style asylum system, cracking down further on already very limited rights of people to asylum, with the Labour Party Government dancing to the tune of Nigel Farage. That was followed immediately by a statement from the Minister for justice, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, who said he is aware of these changes in the UK and committed to ensuring that Ireland is not viewed more favourably. He said he will monitor the changes in the UK to make appropriate changes here. We have reached a situation where, effectively, Nigel Farage is writing Irish migration policy. Nigel Farage calls for something, the Labour Party jumps in Britain and now the Minister jumps after that. It is disgusting. It is a policy that is marked by performative cruelty. It is cruelty that does not make life any better for any ordinary person in this country. It does not build one more house or make one more house available. It does not deal with our crisis in public services or anything else. It just makes life harder for the most vulnerable people.

After talking about a firm but fair system, the Government is talking about making it harder for refugees to reunite with their families. These are refugees who have gone through the asylum process and have been granted refugee status. They recognise that it is not safe for them to go home to a country like Afghanistan. The Government is now saying that even though we say it is not safe for them, we are not going to allow their children or their partners to join them, even though, clearly, they are very unlikely to be safe either. It is a horrifically cruel policy.

The Government should look at what is happening in Denmark, which is inspiring all this. The reality is that the European Court of Human Rights has found that Denmark violated the right to family life under the European Convention on Human Rights. The European Court of Justice accused Denmark of racial discrimination. Refugees have spoken about feeling that integration is pointless because they are effectively not allowed to integrate. I do not suspect the Minister of State cares about any of that, but maybe look at the election results. Denmark's Social Democrats just took a hammering because people who oppose racism voted for parties to their left and they have lost control of Copenhagen as a result of parties to their left. They have lost other voters to their right, which they have legitimised. The Minister of State maybe will not listen to the basically calls about humanity, but maybe look at, politically, where this will lead for him.

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