John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I will continue where Deputy Flaherty left off. My focus is on what my constituents would like to see on the issue of migration and the enforcement of rules, and what kind of system in Ireland would give them confidence. Our parliamentary party had detailed discussions on this a few months ago and came up with a lot of suggestions. They were humanitarian-based, reasonable and formed the basis of a party paper on the issue, much of which has been adopted by the Government. Migration looks like a fact of life here to stay. Any reasonable person, if asked how they want migrants treated, would say they want to see them treated humanely and respectfully. I believe the majority of Irish people want that. They also want a rules-based system that is enforced and equally respected.

As the Minister of State noted earlier, secondary movements or in other words, those who migrated to other countries and then find themselves migrating to Ireland is a significant issue and challenge for this country and must be addressed. We want enforceable rules and laws. We also want a system that respects those genuinely fleeing persecution, war or abuse, and that they are respected and treated in an appropriate manner and one that aligns with UN documents and rules on the rights of refugees. They also want the few people who seek refugee status but who are not refugees dealt with efficiently and speedily. They should be returned to their countries of origin, if they are meant to be, in order that Ireland is not seen as a soft touch. Moreover, those who legitimately seek refugee status here and are entitled to it should have those entitlements processed quickly.

While the migration pact does not answer everything, it certainly provides an answer to a number of those anxieties and concerns that the people I represent have. We want a fair system that ensures every member of the European Union carries its fair weight and shoulders the burden equally with others. Given the long gestation period in bringing it to this point, with the EU migration and asylum pact we have as good as we are going to get in this regard. It represents a fair and firm asylum process that respects the dignity of people seeking asylum and who want to access better lives, just as many generations of Irish people did in previous years. It also respects the integrity of the borders of the EU. This migration pact will create an efficient asylum procedure. People will want to know if the pact will improve security and screenings. It appears it will, and on arrival at the EU border people will be screened. Screening includes an identity and security check. That is essential. There is certainly a lot of rumour and innuendo circulating about individuals who seek asylum in the country. Much of it is based on fiction and not fact. This migration pact and the ethos behind it guarantees we can address those issues to some degree. Does the pact protect the human rights of those legitimately claiming asylum in the European Union? That is vital and I think it does. While migration is being weaponised and people in countries fear for their lives for a variety of reasons, those reasons need to be legitimate and not flimsy because of the volume of people on the move. Ireland has always been a source of security and refuge for people in those situations and as a politician, I want to see Ireland continue to be that kind of refuge for people fleeing persecution or war.

As long as migration is weaponised as a tool of war, we are going to face this challenge.

Obviously, if people are coming to the country and seeking asylum, and if the processing of those applications takes an inordinate time, that will lead to an impression abroad that Ireland is a soft touch and that if people come here, it will take so long for us to process them it will be difficult for us to deport them. If someone has been here for a matter of years, it becomes quite difficult legitimately, from a humane point of view, to send that person home. Processing people quickly, and seeing whether a given person is entitled to seek asylum, is a really important factor and also sends a message that Ireland is not a soft touch, such that if people are entitled to asylum, they will be granted asylum and the country will make every effort to integrate them. Similarly, it sends out a message that if they are not entitled to asylum on the grounds that are provided, they will be turned around. Too many people seem to disappear invisibly into the wider population, which is an issue that has to be addressed, and I note the newspaper headlines today in respect of this. The migration pact promises to address the issue of processing times as well.

Communities, including in my constituency, have been placed under severe pressure as a result of locations identified for the housing, whether temporarily or otherwise, of people seeking asylum. The migration pact and the measures it provides for, including faster processing times, should assist there, but one of the key aspects relates to the communications around that and the level of fiction that is flying around. As a Government backbencher, I am on record as saying the Government has been pretty poor to appalling when it comes to communicating what it is trying to do about asylum seekers, why asylum seekers are coming here, what a person who is fleeing persecution or is looking for asylum is fleeing from, the kinds of conditions those who are entitled to it are coming from and what they are entitled to when they come here. There is an awful lot of fiction about that and it needs to be addressed consistently with a cross-departmental approach.

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