Results 3,861-3,880 of 15,298 for speaker:Helen McEntee

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 do not have the figure to hand but I can-----

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 can reassure the Senator that these are documents that have gone through extensive engagement with legal teams, legal professionals and legal translators. As a country, we then transpose this legislation and obviously do so with the Senator and other colleagues across both Houses. I assure the Senator that my team and others have gone through this in great detail. The language that has...

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

Helen McEntee: As to the Deputy's last question, the first iteration was presented in 2016. There is, and has been, an option for any member of this committee or any Member of the Houses to raise any of the issues that were presented in 2016, or in 2020 with the second iteration. There was nothing to stop Deputies or Senators from putting down questions, calling for debates, bringing forward Private...

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

Helen McEntee: There have obviously been measures to which we have opted in prior to now and they have been debated in this committee. Recently, or last year, we opted into the new agency. This was debated. We have opted in to recent measures around human trafficking and this was debated here. It is not to suggest that there have not been debates in this House, but at any stage, the Deputy could have...

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 Attorney General's advice is never published, but what I will say is that we have a constitutional requirement that any measure we opt in to be approved by both Houses and that is obviously what we are doing here. We are having this debate now and then the option is for both Houses to opt in. That is the constitutional requirement and we are absolutely adhering to that.

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 hope that I was clear at the outset when this matter was raised that this is not a sovereign matter. This is not about us losing our sovereignty, but about us choosing and deciding to pass legislation which would very much align us with what our other European colleagues are doing for the benefit of this country. The people of this country voted for the Lisbon treaty, very much aware of...

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 variety of people apply. Some arrived in the UK legally, then sought asylum there and are now applying for asylum here. Others sought asylum in the EU, arrived in the UK and then came here. Others have a legal right to be in the UK and have applied for asylum. There is a variety of people applying for asylum.

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

Helen McEntee: We have a variety. I do not have the figures in front of me.

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, there is a mixture. That is why it is so important that we have appropriate procedures in place with the UK. We have close engagement and procedures with the UK. I mentioned the issue that arose recently about returns, which will be rectified as quickly as possible. It is the case that people also arrive in Ireland seeking to go to the UK. People arrive here illegally, but there are...

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

Helen McEntee: That has only been the case in recent months.

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 high number is only recent and we have a recent High Court case, which means we cannot return them. That has been very clear.

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 have to answer because the Senator said theoretically and in practice. In practice, that figure is only in recent months. It was not the case last year that 13,000 or 80% came from the UK. That figure has only escalated in recent months. That is the case now and if we apply the figure from this year, due to a recent court ruling, returns to the UK have been paused. That High Court...

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, in recent months.

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 do not have those figures broken down in front of me, but that is information we are gathering. I do not have that information to hand.

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 does not change the fact that we need to be able process the applications quickly, make sure we can return people and have a solidarity mechanism. Irrespective of whether they are coming across the Border or through the airports, we still need to be able to access those solidarity or crisis regulations. If we do not sign up to them, we will not be able to apply them, irrespective of...

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

Helen McEntee: Insofar as I can, yes.

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 I can state clearly is that decisions taken to prosecute are decisions taken by An Garda Síochána and the DPP. The Garda National Immigration Bureau, GNIB, is working collectively with the system to make sure that where people are potentially abusing the system or where there are laws that are abused that, at its discretion, it makes those decisions. It is the case that now...

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 a matter for the An Garda to decide what prosecutions.

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

Helen McEntee: My firm view is that the question of ceding sovereignty to the EU by opting in to the measures does not arise. To quote somebody who campaigned for the Lisbon treaty at the time: The Lisbon Treaty neither creates a new state nor dissolves any existing state. It creates no new or competing source of sovereignty and it extinguishes no existing source of Member State sovereignty. I agree...

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

Helen McEntee: No, it is not. I will explain. Today, what I brought to Cabinet-----