Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Keogan for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee. As the Senator will be aware, the Attorney General provides legal advice to the Government and this advice is subject to legal professional privilege in the same way as the legal advice provided to a private client by any solicitor or barrister. The proper operation of Government and, thereby, the public interest is served by this privilege as it facilitates the confidential consideration by Government of sensitive matters. I assure the Senator that the Minister is fully committed to ensuring that Ireland’s international protection system is robust and rules based, and that our borders are protected.

The new EU asylum and migration pact is a game-changer for Ireland. It was agreed last December and recently approved by the European Parliament. The pact was carefully negotiated over several years since 2016 to significantly reform the current approach to migration and asylum both in Ireland and across the entire EU. It will do so by providing a strong and cohesive legislative framework to address the challenges we all face in this area.

The pact will speed up the processing of international protection applicants in order that we have a firmer and fairer system. It will do this through the provision of mandatory processing times. It will make it easier to return those who are found not to be entitled to protection and will introduce greater security checking of applicants, including screening of applicants at EU borders.

The pact will reduce the volume of secondary movement and will make it easier to transfer applicants to the member state responsible. This is particularly important for Ireland because of the volume of international protection applicants who have already applied for protection somewhere else in the EU. It will reduce the time people spend in State-provided accommodation and will support the return of people found not to be entitled to protection.Any delay in opting in would see Ireland continue to operate under our existing systems, while other member states begin to implement the new law. This will likely result in Ireland becoming a more attractive destination for individuals seeking protection, as Ireland would be operating less extensive measures and would not be able to return people to other EU member states. Indeed, if we do not opt in, existing measures in which we participate, such as the Dublin III regulation, would become defunct and we would have no legal tool to return people to other EU member states. The pact offers us all in Europe a real opportunity to work together to design a system that is firm but fair, based on a fair sharing of responsibility that works for everyone.

It is for this reason that Ireland has participated in the Common European Asylum System since the beginning. We are already part of the Common European Asylum System, and the pact is a reform of that system. As measures governed by Protocol 21 of the EU treaty, the request by Ireland to opt in requires the prior approval of both Houses under Article 29.4.7° of the Constitution. Following the Dáil and Seanad approving Ireland's request to opt in to the EU migration pact, the Minister will start to prepare the general scheme of new legislation to replace the International Protection Act 2015. This Bill will be subject to full pre-legislative scrutiny in the usual way. It will then be drafted as usual and fully debated in the Dáil and Seanad. A core part of the role of Minister for Justice is to uphold the Constitution and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, will always do so.