Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail)

I join colleagues in welcoming the Minister to the House. He has shown in his short time in the ministry that he is an extremely hard-working Minister and has taken decisive action in that time. I commend him on the hard decisions he has made. It is not easy to make such decisions and I am sure he will face lots of ire due to them.

The recommendations from the EU seem to be quite reasonable. I do not think this is anything knee-jerk. It seems most of our compatriots in Europe agree and are of like minds. Many have a much stronger line on immigration than we do. Of course, many of them feel the brunt of it more heavily than we do. Through the pact, there is a certain sense of equalisation. It is quite a reasonable measure and the Minister has my full co-operation and support.