Results 1-20 of 18,436 for speaker:Michael McDowell

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

Michael McDowell: I will ask the Minister first about persons coming to Ireland who will be affected by the border procedure. If somebody comes to Ireland as a transit passenger through, say, Paris, is ours the first country that has to deal with him or her under EU law, and will the border procedure apply to him or her? Second, if somebody comes in here from, say, the United Kingdom at an unspecified time...

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

Michael McDowell: Is that the case for a transit passenger? If I am coming from, say, Albania and my plan is to go to Ireland and I go via Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, does it apply to me?

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

Michael McDowell: I am just trying to get to the practicalities of this. If somebody arrives at Dublin Airport, with or without documents, and says they are an Albanian, say, looking for asylum in Ireland, do any of these border procedures have any application to them if they have arrived on a flight from Paris, Berlin, London or wherever?

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

Michael McDowell: Am I to take it that a transit passenger in Paris, say, goes through Schengen procedures before getting on a flight to Dublin?

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

Michael McDowell: Nobody will get to Ireland via those airports unless he or she has gone through a Schengen screening. Is that it?

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

Michael McDowell: I will ask the Minister about the regulations. We discussed this earlier in private session. Do any of them have direct effect?

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

Michael McDowell: Do any of the suite of six regulations have direct effect that does not require primary legislation?

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

Michael McDowell: As regards the common asylum regulation, is it the case, as some people are claiming, that, effectively, as regards our capacity to determine what is or is not persecution, all those things will in future be determined in accordance with the regulation and hard cases will be decided by the Court of Justice of the European Union rather than by our own courts?

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

Michael McDowell: Do the time limits that are envisaged take into account judicial review after the initial decision has been made and an appeal has been made? Is there any time limit on the judicial review process?

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

Michael McDowell: On judicial review to the High Court, the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court, is it the Minister's intention to provide for time limits for decisions in that process as well by primary-----

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

Michael McDowell: My worry is that we will have rapid primary decisions and rapid internal appeals and then there will be a flood of judicial reviews to the superior courts.

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

Michael McDowell: Finally, we sign in to these regulations. Is it or is it not the case under protocol 21 that they can be amended at a later stage by qualified majority voting, QMV, and that our veto, so to speak, is gone and we are stuck with decisions?

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

Michael McDowell: I appreciate that but I am asking a different question. If they are amended later, are we stuck with the amendment once we opt in?

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

Michael McDowell: We would opt in to any amendment.

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

Michael McDowell: There are a few things arising out of that. I will briefly respond to what Deputy Farrell said, although I do not want to get into a debate with him. Our opt-ins under Article 29, or the options and discretions that Ireland is empowered to make by resolutions of both Houses, are fundamental to sovereignty. For instance, we can surrender such things as tax unanimity, corporation tax...

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

Michael McDowell: I agree with Deputy Harkin that there is a distinction between sovereignty and the requirement for a referendum under Article 29 of the Constitution, but it does not mean it is any less a derogation of sovereignty when the State opts in and confers on other institutions the right to make decisions over a large area of what used to be national autonomy. Some 80% of asylum applications now...

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

Michael McDowell: Has the Department ever broken them down by category? For example, this person had been in Birmingham for five years and then decided to come to Ireland because he must go home otherwise.

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

Michael McDowell: People like students.

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

Michael McDowell: I appreciate that, but if 80% of the 15,000 to 20,000 who apply for asylum per annum in Ireland are coming from the UK, do we send 80% of them back to the UK and say to the UK, "You handle these people"? Is that the situation?