In July 2023, I asked the Minister for Justice how many asylum seekers were coming from Britain through the North of Ireland into the South of Ireland over the past five years. At that stage, approximately 66% of those were making applications to the International Protection Office. The Minister stated in her reply to the parliamentary question that the question about what routes they used to come into the country was not asked of the asylum seekers. I thought this was a stunning answer: that a Minister in charge of this particular issue would not ask basic questions of individuals coming into the country.

I asked the same question in October 2023 about how asylum seekers were getting into the State, and the Minister for Justice did change the answer a little bit. She told me that the information is not recorded. I asked the same question again two weeks ago and she again changed the answer a little bit. She said that it was not possible to extract that information from the data. It is astonishing that we have such a system when so many people are coming into the country. They are applying to the International Protection Office, but the staff of the Minister for Justice are not asking them how they came into the State.

It is not the only question that was not asked. After 14 migrants were found in a refrigerated container in Rosslare, just narrowly managing to escape with their lives, I asked the Minister how many vehicles are checked at ports across the country. She said that statistics are not available on the number of searches that are carried out on ports.

I also asked the Minister for Justice how many applicants to the International Protection Office have gone missing in the State in the past five years. Again, incredibly, the Minister stated that the requested statistics are not recorded in a manner to allow for that information to be extracted.

For nearly three years I have also been asking a question about how many people who have come into the country who have had a deportation order made against them have had that deportation order actioned. Incredibly, I have been told that 85% of those deportation orders over the past five years were never actioned. I asked what happened to these people and I was told that most of these people had voluntary deportation orders. I then asked the question of whether there was any confirmation that these people had left the country. The Minister said "No" and that we have no facility at the ports of exit to be able to confirm the exit of these individuals. She said that in some cases the Garda Síochána may have information about this but they were not able to confirm that either. That was in the reply to the parliamentary question.

Shockingly, we have this crisis on our hands, that has been developing over the past number of years. A large part of that crisis is as a result of the Minister for Justice not knowing what is happening within the Department. That is incredible. I believe it has led to a significant increase this year in the number of people coming into the country. It has also led to a situation where the Tánaiste rebuked and contradicted the Minister for Justice this week. Now, it has also led to a breakdown in relationships with the British Government. Emergency legislation is being introduced to deal with this matter. I understand it is to allow for people to be returned to Britain. The British Government is refusing to accept that it will apply the legislation, which it says cannot be enforced. How is the Government going to make the British accept the new returns policy in the legislation?

I reject out of hand the Deputy's hypothesis relating to our migration situation in this country. The reason we have seen a very significant increase in people coming, not just to Ireland but right across the European Union is multifold. None of them have anything to do with the name of the Minister for Justice of any country. That is very clear. Anybody with any understanding of migration patterns across the European Union, Ireland, the war in Ukraine and the likes, would very quickly arrive at that conclusion, but that does not make for a good social media video.

The Minister has taken a number of actions that have very significantly improved our migration system in real time. We have had to improve it in real time, because we have gone from a relatively small number of people – a few thousand every year – to a much larger number, coupled on top of that with the Ukrainian humanitarian response. The Deputy can look at the work that has been done on processing times. We know that faster processing times are the most effective way of making sure we can provide certainty to those who have a right to be here, because migration is, by the way, a good thing, and integrate them into the community.

However, it also allows us to tell those who do not have a right to be here that they do not have that right and need to leave. Faster processing times is the key to making progress the world over.

The Minister has also made decisions in respect of the designation of countries as safe countries. A significant decision was made by her in recent days around the country from which the highest proportion of people are coming. They are going on a fast acceleration list for processing. That country happens to be Nigeria currently and I have no doubt that over the coming months, there will be significant progress. A total of 100 gardaí who were doing desk jobs relating to immigration will be freed up and put on the front line, working with the PSNI and also working on issues such as deportations. That will make a real difference.

We live on an island that has an open border. Every party in this House values that and agrees with the approach, as do the overwhelming majority of people in the country. It is important for peace and prosperity, and is absolutely something we all cherish and guard. That does mean we do not count the number of people who come over the Border on an hourly or daily basis, or ever. That is not the same thing as suggesting we do not see trends that appear in the International Protection Office and it is a responsible Minister, doing the job well, who decides to have an informed debate on migration and to put that information into the public domain. Anything less would have been irresponsible because instead of people just asking repeatedly, "What about the airport?", which was the mantra in this House for a few months, we now realise it is not just about the airport, passport checks and gardaí at the feet of aeroplanes, although all of that has happened; it is also about asking how we can work more closely with the PSNI and the Garda and how we can work more closely on the common travel area with the UK, which we both value. The common travel area has been there for a long time. How do we work together in that regard?

We have seen a significant increase in deportations. In fact, 173 people had departed the State under various mechanisms by 26 April. Biometric processing is done for everybody who comes to our International Protection Office. In respect of the United Kingdom, all we are looking to do is to clarify our own laws to enforce an agreement that is already in place. I am proud to lead a Government that honours its agreements and I expect our nearest neighbours will do the same.

One of the basic tenets of management is to measure what is happening. If we cannot measure what is happening, we cannot manage the situation. If I were to open a sweet shop on Main Street in Bray, I would need to know what is happening within that sweet shop or it would go bust. Despite myself and others trying to get the Minister to focus on measuring what is happening, there was a refusal to do so until two weeks ago. The most recent reply to a parliamentary question I asked of the Department stated it was not able to extract the information from the data. That is a flashing neon light suggesting incompetency.

The Taoiseach mentioned deportations. More than 7,000 applications have been refused in the past year but deportations have occurred in fewer than 100 of those cases. We saw last week under the Dublin III regulations that in only three of the 188 cases in which decisions were made was a person transferred.

We have legislation that has never been used. We are going to amend the legislation, yet the British are still refusing to accept returns. I am asking the Taoiseach how the Government will enforce that. Otherwise that emergency legislation is a distraction from fixing the situation.

The Deputy has a better understanding of how to run a sweet shop in Bray that he has of migration policy because this Minister does measure metrics and talks about them to this House.

I have replies to 15 parliamentary questions that say the opposite.

Please, Deputy.

I will come in and buy a lollipop from the Deputy in Bray.

The sweet shop is closed.

Processing times are down and deportations are up. The numbers of countries on the safe country list are up. More gardaí are being freed up. We are working with our European colleagues because we recognise that this island on its own cannot solve migration issues. We must have effective policies in place around returns, which is a word I do not like, by the way, when we are talking about human beings, but there have to be effective agreements in place across the European Union. When I go to the European Council, these are the sorts of issues that politicians across Europe are talking about, working together to ensure we have effective plans in place.

Are they enforceable?

I have no interest at all in this country being used as a pawn in British politics. We have an agreement in place. It is called a standard operating procedure for processing and transferring asylum seekers between the UK and Ireland.

How is it enforced?

I ask the Deputy to stop interrupting. The agreement has been in place since 2020 and it sets out the procedure. It is an operational guide that is rooted in the following legislation of this country: the International Protection Act 2015 and Part 18 of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Act 2020, which the Deputy may or may not have voted for. In the UK, the relevant pieces of legislation are Part 11 of the immigration rules and the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004. Countries should honour agreements they sign up to and our country will honour ours.