Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The Minister will be aware that this week, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration in its pre-legislative scrutiny report on the international protection Bill asked that consideration be again given to opting out of the EU migration and asylum pact because that pact does not take cognisance of the fact we operate within a common travel area. Ireland is in the unique position of being an EU member state that also has a common travel area with a state outside of the EU. It is becoming increasingly clear that the pact fails to take account of Ireland's unique challenges. I am concerned at the lack of priority that the Minister is giving to what is a programme for Government commitment to prioritise working with the British Government to introduce further measures in respect of the common travel area. No progress has been made.

Is the Minister going to take account of the pre-legislative scrutiny report from the committee and prioritise this issue? It needs to be prioritised.

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