The Minister of State has spoken about the asylum, migration and integration fund supporting the implementation of the EU migration and asylum pact. The Government's decision to sign up to this pact is highly contentious. In Sinn Féin's view, the vast majority of measures contained in the EU's asylum and migration pact are not in Ireland's best interests because we must retain sovereignty over these matters if we are to have an immigration system where decisions are made quickly and those decisions are enforced. Decisions are still taking too long and, despite some high-profile flights, deportation orders are not being enforced as they should be. These are all issues that can be sorted by the Irish Government and which do not require us to sign up to the pact. There has been a lot of talk and repeated announcements on issues such as asking those in the international protection system who are also in work to pay towards their accommodation but nothing has actually happened. On migration more generally, nothing has been done to cap the number of international students, something I have raised with the Minister on a number of occasions. While Government signed up to all aspects of the EU pact, it is not prepared for implementation. Sinn Féin supported a number of aspects of the pact because they were in Ireland's interest. We supported opting in to the asylum and migration management regulation and the Eurodac regulation but we opposed opting in to all other measures. As each day passes, it becomes clearer that it was a mistake to sign up to the EU migration and asylum pact and that it is not right for Ireland. It is time the Minister of State and his Government acknowledged that the EU migration and asylum pact is not in Ireland's best interests and that it does not take into account Ireland's unique challenges as a member state that is part of a common travel area with a state outside of the EU. Unfortunately, there was no sense of this being recognised when the Minister met with the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, to discuss the pact this week. By failing to recognise the realities of the challenges we are facing as a result of our membership of the common travel area, failing to recognise that the people of Ireland are best placed to make decisions in relation to migration and failing to prioritise the achievement of a bilateral agreement on returns, the Government has left the State in an unacceptable situation in terms of the management of migration. It is also time for the Government, including the Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, who appears to have a particular reluctance in this regard, to admit that, as with many other challenges faced in Ireland, having two states on the island of Ireland impedes our ability to deal with migration properly. Brexit added another layer of complexity to this situation. It goes without saying that the management of migration will be simplified when there is one state on the island of Ireland. For this reason and many others, it is time to start making unity a reality. On numerous occasions, I have raised the need for a secure bilateral agreement with Britain to ensure that those international protection applicants who should be processed in Britain can be returned there promptly. It would be helpful if the Minister of State could outline to the Dáil the progress that has been made in this regard. We should not be opting into proposals under Article 3 by way of motions put before the House. In an earlier debate, I made points to the Minister of State about the flexibility we have as a result of Protocol No. 21. It is madness not to avail of this flexibility. For example, the regulation establishing Union support for internal security is informed by the EU's new internal security strategy, ProtectEU. There are serious concerns about ProtectEU with respect to its chat control proposals and the consequences of undermining encryption for personal data. It has been argued that any attempt to weaken encryption weakens everyone's security and that it has the effect of weakening cybersecurity and leaving systems vulnerable to attack. For Sinn Féin, the issue of sovereignty is paramount in considering these types of motions, which regularly come before the Oireachtas. Handing sovereignty over to the EU in constant drips undermines democracy and our ability as a country to act in the best interests of the Irish people. Unless there is a compelling reason to act to the contrary, Ireland should be making its own decisions on issues in the areas of freedom, security and justice. Ireland has the option to opt in to these regulations at a later stage under Article 4 of Protocol No. 21. This would allow us to do so at a time when we have more clarity as to whether they are in Ireland's best interests.

Sentiment score: 0.08