Results 3,701-3,720 of 15,298 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Court Accommodation (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: But it is not.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: EU Agreements (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: We have just had a good debate and a number of questions at the Joint Committee on Justice on this matter. I start by assuring the Deputy that I am keenly aware that the right to asylum is a fundamental right in the EU guaranteed by the treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights and confirmed by the proposals under the pact on migration and asylum. The EU asylum and migration pact will...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: EU Agreements (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: You could say the fact that there are people on the extreme left and right with opposing views and we are somewhere in the middle means that we may have got it somewhat right. I assure the Deputy, and I speak on my own behalf but also - I think - on behalf of the vast majority of people in this country, that we are and have always been a welcoming country. I believe our colleagues, friends...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: EU Agreements (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: It is important to be clear that we are not proposing to detain people. While we will have a border procedure and people coming through that procedure will be in specific accommodation, they will not be detained. We will not have fences or people in a prison-type facility. That is not what we are proposing here and I do not think it is what we should ever propose. However, we have...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: An Garda Síochána (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: This year, I have provided a budget allocation of over €2.35 billion to An Garda Síochána. This is a 25% increase on 2020 and will allow for the sustained recruitment of Garda recruits in 2024. I have taken a number of measures to support increased recruitment into An Garda Síochána. This includes a 66% increase in the training allowance and increasing the age of...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Court Accommodation (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: The Deputy will be aware that the provision of improved court facilities at Tralee is one of the Courts Service projects included in the national development plan, NDP. The existing courthouse on Ashe Street in Tralee comprises only two courtrooms and it lacks the facilities one would expect to find in a modern county town courthouse. I am informed the plan is for a new courthouse...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Court Accommodation (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: The Deputy has raised this with me recently in relation to the An Post site. I have inquired and have been informed by the Courts Service that the search for a suitable site has been ongoing. It has been challenging. This was prior to the completion of the sale of the Island of Geese site, which was back in December last year. It had been ongoing for many years stretching back to the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Court Accommodation (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: The challenge here is that the search for a site has been going on since the early 2000s. The site referred to by the Deputy was not for sale and it is actually not up for sale now. I appreciate that it might come up for sale at some point in the future. It is not up for sale now and we do have a site that has actually been acquired. It is a portion of the site and the decision was taken...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: EU Regulations and Directive on International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: I thank the Chair. I apologise that I have to take parliamentary questions in the House later. I would have moved or changed them otherwise. I am pleased to be here today to discuss the proposal that the State exercises its option to participate in the EU asylum and migration pact and I thank the committee for its engagement on this matter. As the committee will be aware, following...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: EU Regulations and Directive on International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: Yes, I think it is feasible but it will require increased levels of staffing. These increased levels will be required not just in the first-instance decisions, because this context includes appeals as well, so we will need to ensure our appeals processing is more efficient than it is now. This will also require an investment in people to allow us to be able to carry out these procedures....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: EU Regulations and Directive on International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: It is. All this will require resources and an increase in the capacity of our overall system. We have more than doubled the number of people working in the International Protection Office in the last two years. The intention would be to increase it at the same level in the two intervening years between now and when the pact officially comes into play in 2026.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: EU Regulations and Directive on International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: A system is in place whereby we would need, for example, to apply a percentage of the border procedure requirement in that time. I think the figure is 1,746. Beyond that, we do not have to apply the 12-week period. Obviously, though, we want to ensure that as many people as possible going through that procedure are processed in that time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: EU Regulations and Directive on International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: The challenge has been to make sure that what has been agreed will work. This is why we have been debating it for some time. There are member states under significantly more pressure than other countries. I have mentioned Italy, Cyprus and Greece. What we are placing on them is a significant onus to process a significant number of people who will be coming into Europe or who are already...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: EU Regulations and Directive on International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: With regard to the UK, Deputy Farrell is correct that we have an open border. The UK is no longer in the EU. We have agreements in place that mirror much of what we are discussing with regard to the pact, in particular with regard to returns. A significant number of people applying for asylum here have come through the UK. We have had a challenge in recent weeks with a High Court ruling...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: EU Regulations and Directive on International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: Through engagement when somebody is given a decision much more quickly, we are much more likely to know whether the person is leaving and they will communicate this to us. We can check that. In years gone by, because it took so long to go through these processors, people disappeared out of the system. What we do, and have been doing, is carry out checks to look at whether people are still...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: EU Regulations and Directive on International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: It will not cede our sovereignty. When we signed up to the Lisbon treaty it was made clear that issues relating to security and migration would be a European competence. Ireland agreed and negotiated that there would be an opt-in measure. For any of these types of measures for security and policing, and many of the measures we have discussed in the committee and in the Houses, we make a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: EU Regulations and Directive on International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: All of it will be done through primary legislation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: EU Regulations and Directive on International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: If this is to be voted through, then, for the next two years there will be full engagement on the legislation. We will have to go through the normal process in developing that legislation and there will be full and significant engagement with the committee and with both Houses as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: EU Regulations and Directive on International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: Why would we not opt into the pact? That is my question here. We have seen-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: EU Regulations and Directive on International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Helen McEntee: The suggestion there is that we would not opt in but would try to replicate what other countries are doing by not opting in but where we are still bound by the previous opt-ins. When it comes to the Dublin III regulation, if we do not opt into the new system of returns, we are still bound by the Dublin III regulation which is a less efficient system. If we do not opt in to faster...