Results 3,901-3,920 of 15,389 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 cannot speak for other countries and I do not know the overall figures they received. As a much larger country with a much greater influx of people seeking-----

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

Helen McEntee: -----protection, there is obviously a much greater number of people that Germany may be able to return. One of the biggest challenges we have faced is getting acceptance within the six-month period.

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 did have a situation last year whereby Greece and Italy stopped accepting some of the returns.

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

Helen McEntee: They did not take them after accepting them.

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 Department has done outstanding work in recent years.

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 do so.

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 I outlined in response to an earlier question, while we cannot opt in to the return border procedure because we are not part of Schengen, the intention is that we will still apply the 12-week rule in terms of the returns procedure. It would be for us to develop the 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: I propose that we vote on them collectively-----

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

Helen McEntee: -----because they have been negotiated together and they are all very much interconnected.

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

Helen McEntee: When we signed up to the Lisbon treaty we made a declaration that we would participate to the maximum extent possible. There is a duty of sincere co-operation. It would be more than unusual if, having negotiated all seven of these measures, we were not proposing them collectively as a whole-of-government, whole-of-EU response to what is one of the biggest challenges that we face. If anybody...

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 are two separate items in the same measure. The take-back notification is separate to the solidarity mechanism. The solidarity mechanism will be if you have a massive influx of people and where the EU will then identify, based on GDP and our population, what percentage we could potentially take. Again, we have the option to pay money instead. That will not change and it will not be...

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 only speak on my own behalf, on the work that has been done in recent years, and the huge efforts that have been made to try to address the increase in numbers. In the last two and a half years, the number of people working in the International Protection Office has more than doubled. We had given ourselves a target of 7,500 first instance decisions. Last year, we reached 9,000. We...

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 ten designated. That number has increased in recent months, and I am currently reviewing eight. I can only speak to the Deputy about the decisions I have taken but the decisions were taken only in recent years.

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 to look at the number of people coming from these countries as well. At the moment, of the ten countries, they account for about 7% of overall applications. We specifically designated certain countries. Having gone through the process, they were designated as having met the criteria where we saw a massive influx or an increase, in particular Georgia and South Africa. Since...

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 almost complete but it will not necessarily mean that 60% of applications are suddenly in an accelerated procedure. It is actually quite a small number. There are a lot of countries that are not safe, that we should not even be looking at and that are never going to be deemed safe. We can review them and look at them but it will not have an impact on the volume. We do not...

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.

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

Helen McEntee: On the safe countries, Georgia has been designated since 2018. Where it actually has effect is where we have applied in the last year the accelerated procedure. In other words, it can be a safe country but that does not mean you are going to be processed any quicker. It did not have an impact. It has been designated since 2018 when we saw an increase in numbers. The only way it 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: No, you cannot unless you are part of Schengen. An open border and common travel area with the UK prevents us from it because of the Schengen need for it to be able to manage borders and obviously, we have an open border. It precludes us for that reason. Due to the common travel area, we cannot opt into anything that is Schengen-related.

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 has been the case over the past eight years that any of the concerns that have been raised are taken into consideration. If the Deputy is asking for my personal view, the more efficient a system we have the better we can protect people who genuinely need it.

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

Helen McEntee: To be clear, it is not the case that everybody comes without documentation. People who have been in the UK cross with documentation to seek asylum. It is the case that if people are identified as having come from Northern Ireland, they can have that procedure applied to them or we can designate somewhere as a port of entry. That is what we have for our ports and airports. If we were to...