Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)

Like the Acting Chairman, I want to welcome the guests in the Gallery. I have to say that when I walked in, I thought I was appearing before a grand jury. I welcome them all. I wish them a successful day with Deputy Scanlon.

I thank the Acting Chairman and his colleagues for facilitating these motions. This morning, the Government approved my request to seek the approval of this House to opt in to these EU Commission proposals. These proposals form part of the multi-annual financial framework, sometimes referred to as the MFF, package. As the House will know, the MFF is the European Union's long-term budget plan that sets the annual spending limits for various policy areas over a seven-year period.

The proposals today relate to the asylum, migration and integration fund, the internal security fund and the justice programme fund. Ireland already participates in and draws down a lot of funding from these streams. The proposed regulations will cover the period 2028 to 2034. As instruments with a Title V legal base, Protocol 21 of the treaty applies and an opt-in under Article 3 is required in order for Ireland to continue utilising funding made available under the programmes.

On the proposals themselves, the proposed regulation for a new asylum fund provides for a total considerable amount of money in EU funding, which is significantly increased from what the fund was before. Funding can be drawn down to support member states' capacity to manage and respond to asylum, migration and integration challenges and will be available to support member states' implementation of the pact. In fact, the total amount that will be in the fund from the years 2028 to 2034 will be €11.9 billion, which is an increase on the €6.2 billion that was in the previous version of the fund. Ireland received €63.53 million from that fund during its last iteration. Ireland has participated in the previous two iterations of the fund and participated in the two comparable funds that preceded it, the European integration fund and the refugee fund. Under the current programme, the fund provides a range of supports for international protection applicants, beneficiaries of temporary protection and other third country nationals arriving in Ireland. This funding assistance also supports the State's ability to fund a wide range of NGO-led migrant integration programmes and covers certain aspects of the Irish refugee protection programme and the returns programme, both of which are managed by my Department.

Ireland has also benefited from participation in previous iterations of the EU internal security fund, ISF. The proposed regulation will establish a new internal security fund for 2028 to 2034 and provide an indicative amount of €6.8 billion, a significant increase on the €1.9 billion provided under the current internal security fund, which operates from 2021 to 2027. Internal security is high on the Union's agenda. In recent years, geopolitical instability has impacted greatly on the EU. The threat picture facing the EU is stark. Security threats are increasingly cross-border in nature, necessitating closer co-operation between member states. We also know that serious and organised crime, terrorism, radicalisation and violent extremism need to be combated at a Union level. As we know only too well, Ireland is not immune to this. The indicative increase for this fund reflects the priority afforded to protecting the Union's internal security and the need to keep it high on the agenda. The EU internal security fund is informed by ProtectEU, which is the Commission's new internal security strategy. I had the pleasure earlier this week of meeting the Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, when he visited Ireland. I know that the ProtectEU policy is a central theme of his Commissionership. The aims of ProtectEU can be achieved by enhancing operational law enforcement co-operation and the exchange of information between member states and relevant EU agencies.

Under this fund, grants may be drawn down for activities that include the development of national and EU-wide information systems, joint operations between cross-border and national authorities and training on new technologies and processes. Beneficiaries of the programmes implemented under the ISF may include national police, customs and other specialised law enforcement services, NGOs and local public bodies. Under the current internal security fund, Ireland has benefited from funding provided that has enabled investments in IT systems, including Ireland's connection to the Schengen information system, the establishment of Ireland's passenger information unit and the enhancement of the automatic number plate reading system in Garda vehicles. From the previous internal security fund, we got €21.8 million. Again, these are funds where there is a clear financial benefit as well as a substantive benefit to Ireland opting in.

The third motion listed for this debate is on the proposal to establish the justice programme fund. This proposal is also a continuation of previous iterations of the programme and intends to establish a fund of €798 million in total over seven years. Member states can draw down from the fund for projects that promote adherence to the rule of law and fundamental rights, support and improve access to justice and support judicial training and the proper funding of independent judicial systems. Some examples of Irish projects funded under this stream include a research project by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL, to raise awareness of the application of the standards of the European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, in day-to-day decision-making on flight risk as the ground for pretrial detention, a Law Society project to increase knowledge in key areas of EU law for EU lawyers who would be able to give better advice to European citizens and businesses, and a Tusla-led project to improve access to child-friendly justice. We really need entities to be aware that this fund is available and that they can make applications to it if they come within the justice portfolio. The European Judicial Training Network, of which the Judicial Council of Ireland is a member, is also funded under the justice programme. This network brings together judicial training institutions from around Europe to develop and implement training for the judiciary. It is important that Ireland continue to support the work of this independent training institute.

In respect of all those three opt-ins I am proposing, I want the House to know that from a procedural point of view, opting in to these measures at an early stage will allow Ireland to maximise our influence on the final shape of these proposals. This is why I am proposing an opt-in under Article 3.

I will now deal with the separate motion regarding participation in the passenger name record, PNR, data agreements between the European Union and the Republic of Korea, for which I am seeking the approval of Seanad Éireann. This is a Council decision with a Title V legal basis. It is in the area of police and co-operation. That is why we need to opt in to it and why I am here seeking the approval of this House. The collection and analysis of PNR data is a widely used law enforcement tool in the EU and in other countries for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime. PNR data is the booking information provided by passengers and collected by air carriers for their own commercial purposes, such as names and dates of travel or travel itineraries. It can provide the authorities with important elements allowing them to detect suspicious travel patterns and to identify associates of criminals and terrorists, particularly those previously unknown to law enforcement agencies. The use of PNR data is governed by the EU PNR directive, which has been transposed into national law. The Irish passenger information unit within my own Department is the body responsible for processing PNR. Today, I am simply asking Senators to support and opt in to those negotiations so that we can participate on the same basis as other EU member states. We will not be bound into participation in the finalised agreement with the Republic of Korea unless we exercise our right to opt in again when fresh proposals are published at the end of the negotiations. I think it is desirable that Ireland exercise an Article 3 opt-in to this proposal with the Republic of Korea so that we can fully participate in the negotiations as they progress.

I commend the motions to the House. I thank Senators for listening to me and I appreciate the speed with which Seanad Éireann has been able to put these opt-ins on its agenda considering that in respect to the first three of them, I only got Government approval about three hours ago.