I want to be constructive. I would welcome any Government policy that will deal with the present chaotic system of IPAS processing and enforcement. However, we should make the decision. That is fairly obvious. Based on our own circumstances on a divided island, this issue cannot be addressed in the present system. The system to date has not been fit for purpose. I want to be constructive, as I was saying. We need to see faster processing of the claims and more efficient decision-making in terms of Eurodac with biometric data and the screening at border checks. I welcome the enhanced screening brought in at Rosslare Europort. I was down at the opening some months ago. We need to see less time spent by applicants in State accommodation, which is enriching cowboys, basically, to the tune of €1.2 billion last year. These aspects are good and we support certain aspects like giving communities back their hotels and community spaces. It will be good if it leads to quicker processing of successful applicants and if it will do away with the trafficking industry and especially child trafficking which is something that existed long before Jeffrey Epstein. It is something that has been going on. It will be good if it means we have the faster return of those who have been refused asylum. We want a system that is fair, efficient and enforced because we have not been enforcing so far. What we have done up to date is not apply our own rules. We have made a laughing stock of the country in front of the world. The whole situation of the passports in bins, which was going on for years, made a mockery of the system. Anything that would deal with that would certainly give more credibility to the Government. An Irish Government is best placed to make these decisions in the interest of the Irish people rather than faceless, unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. That undermines our democracy and sovereignty. The people whose statues are around the Chamber were people who stood for sovereignty. The patriot dead we think of coming up to Easter were people governments saw fit to honour here, so we should be thinking of sovereignty, which is our ability to control our own affairs. Obviously an Irish Government elected by the Irish people, regardless of who they vote for, is in the best place to do that but our attitude has been to be the best boys and girls in the class in the EU for years and that does not serve us well all the time. This State is supposed to be independent, sovereign and should not be beholden to Europe on matters we can resolve ourselves, such as these, as Deputy Carthy and others have pointed out. There are many aspects of the Bill that do not recognise the unique situation on the island where we have an open border with a non-EU state. It is absolutely necessary we advance towards Irish unity but this Bill does not recognise the fact that every day there are taxis coming down from Belfast and Newry arriving outside the Gresham Hotel on O’Connell Street. People can see it openly. It is something that cannot be sorted out under the present arrangements. We should not be doing all this as a package because one size cannot fit all the countries in Europe. It certainly does not suit our needs given our unique circumstances and we are at nothing trying to deal with these challenges. If we sign up in full to this pact in the absence of Irish unity, it simply will not work. It would be a crazy idea to give carte blanche to, and say we agree with, everything that does not suit our circumstances. I ask the Minister of State to consider that. It goes against everything his party believes in as well. It would be crazy to sign up for the full package.
Sentiment score: 0.17
In terms of absconding, are figures available for the number of people in the State subject to deportation orders?
Sentiment score: 0.08
Does the Minister have the number of people in the State subject to deportation orders, and have their records been checked in terms of absconding?
Sentiment score: 0.08
In terms of absconding, I know from a parliamentary question reply that there were 2,330 deportation orders last year-----
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It is next, though.
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I was coming to-----
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The absence of Irish unity makes what we just voted on unworkable. On the passenger name recognition, PNR, data that is used, it is already used for the common travel area by both Britain and Ireland for tracking criminality. Can that be used to get a clearer picture of who has left the State? Both countries have passenger name recognition data.
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Likewise, I think this amendment is helpful, constructive and sensible. To take a similar area in County Wexford, Rosslare was a really deprived village. It had two IPAS centres and was probably the most welcoming village in Ireland. It is the gateway to Ireland and Europe. People there raised over €100,000 immediately for the Ukrainian response and took in over 70 Ukrainians. It was one of the first villages to take in Ukrainians. What reward did this extremely deprived village get? It had the Great Southern Hotel, which was earmarked in planning to be a nursing home. The Pobal deprivation index shows the village has a very high percentage of elderly people, so people were waiting for this nursing home to come along. What happened? A developer flipped the property and said he was going to put 400 people into it. That was the plan. It caused absolute chaos in the village and there was cross-party opposition to it. I was delighted to march with the people down there, as were representatives from across the spectrum. People said if there was a wrong way to go about things, this was it. This was the reward the village got for being so accepting. People said we should spread the locations among the different counties and communities. As Deputy Carthy and others mentioned, the concentration has been in deprived rural areas and working-class communities. If we wanted a masterclass in how to divide an area and turn people against each other, this was a classic example. This amendment is a good, sensible option to take the heat out of this situation. I spoke to various providers. They said that five years ago, there was a rundown place with approximately 100 vacancies in it and they were getting €80 per place per night, or €8,000 per night. I spoke to a woman who said her brother was running one of these centres. He was getting €8,000 per night. The only requirement was to provide cornflakes or another cereal in the morning. It was basically a licence to print money. As Deputy Carthy mentioned, €1.2 billion was spent on this area last year. In the case of Rosslare, the village did not even have a doctor. We were saying we had to provide health services for people arriving into Ireland, yet there was no doctor in the village. Rosslare was being earmarked for a centre but, thankfully, people power stopped it, which was a sensible decision. I could mention several other examples around Ireland. The case of the 300-year-old Dundrum House Hotel in County Tipperary was another classic example. Brogan Capital Ventures Limited was involved. Again, this was a huge flashpoint. We all remember the scenes on TV of what happened at Dundrum. That could have been avoided. This hotel was the centre of the village. It was the centre for births, christenings, marriages, the afters of funerals and everything else. It was the only hotel in the village, and then someone decided it could be flipped over. It was vulture capital at work. The number of people being put in to that hotel exceeded the population of the village. It was a classic example. Last November, just before Christmas, the High Court ordered the centre, which was basically an unauthorised centre, to be shut down. It issued a quashing order in respect of the planning exemption granted to the hotel. That was another very good example, and vindication for the residents and all the groups. It was cross-party politics. I could cite several other examples, but I will not waste time. It was a masterclass in how to make money quickly for speculators and get rich quick cowboys and in how to divide communities. This is a really constructive, sensible proposal on how to take the heat out of this and go about it the proper way, basically, to do a community impact assessment based on the Pobal deprivation index, etc. Therefore, I plead with the Minister to at least back this. If he is not going to back the other amendments like earlier, he should at least back this one.
Sentiment score: 0.04