EU migration pact
Deputy Tóibín condemned the EU migration pact as anti-sovereignty, costly and imposed without proper democratic debate. The Minister replied that the Justice Minister has Government backing, will answer the Dáil, and that the pact is meant to speed up applications and ease pressures.
While this Dáil drowned in dysfunction this week, the Government produced the EU migration implementation pact. While this Parliament was in paralysis this week, the Government sought to sneak through this highly controversial plan. As the Minister knows, this EU migration pact is opposed by a great number of the Irish people. The EU migration pact hands sovereignty on the issue of migration away from the Irish people. The EU migration pact outsources key decisions to the EU. The Government's plan stated yesterday that it could cost billions of euro to implement the plan. The staffing costs will be an extra €117 million. The set-up costs for 14,000 beds could be as high as €875 million. The running cost for those beds could be €725 million, yet there is no reference at all to consultation with local communities, which has been a big problem of the Government's for the last number of years. The Minister for Justice admits that 90% of IPAS applications are coming from Britain through the North of Ireland, yet there is no reference to proper engagement with the British Government about how to control IPAS applicants moving across the Irish Sea. Why is there not and when will the Government do that?
Comment on this
The Deputy is not frequently a voice for calmness and moderation in this House. I did not notice him being one during the week either.
Comment on this
I was not shouting at anybody during the week.
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There is no doubt but that the Minister for Justice wants to engage with the Dáil on this issue. He gained Government agreement about the steps that are needed to implement the pact. He will of course come into the Dáil to answer questions on it but the aim of the pact is to reduce processing times for migration applications, which we all know in turn can help to reduce the pressures that we face from migration and those who are looking to move to our country. I will couch all this and end this on a positive note, that the openness of our economy and society and the contribution that those who come and work here make is positive and makes such a difference to our economy and the running of our public services. I look forward to a calm and moderate intervention from the Deputy next Tuesday.