Every state requires a functioning internal protection system. Being fit for purpose requires such systems to fit a number of criteria. It is regrettable that the Minister is not only failing on every front in this regard but his approach in this Bill is, in effect, an abdication of his responsibility. Nothing is more indicative of this than his response to my party colleague Deputy Carthy in the earlier part of this debate two weeks ago. When speaking on the asylum and migration pact, the Minister said: "[I]t would not be legally possible to seek to opt out even if this was the democratic wish of the Houses of the Oireachtas." There are parts of the pact it makes sense for Ireland to opt in to, such as Eurodac and screening, for example, which are perfectly sensible. However, the vast majority of the pact will not solve the issues we face. If a legal requirement solved Government failures, we would not have the scandalous backlog it is overseeing in terms of assessment of needs. If a legal requirement would address the incompetence of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, I would propose there be such a requirement regarding the number of members of An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces. The fact is the Government wantonly breaks the law and engages in what I call "lawfare" against families, including, in one scandalous instance, compiling dossiers on those simply seeking to vindicate the rights of their children. Aside from the measures Sinn Féin has outlined we would support, the pact offers nothing the Government could not simply choose to do while retaining flexibility. Instead, it is choosing to tie the hands of future governments and expose Ireland to fines when it inevitably fails to meet the pact requirements. The Minister will say, as he said to Deputy Carthy, that there is nothing he can do. In fact, he has chosen to have no choice. All the while, his party leader, the Taoiseach, has a new-found passion for sovereignty while discussing gutting the neutrality protection provided by the triple lock. There is no talk of sovereignty from Fianna Fáil while ceding sovereignty to Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, investor courts. There is no talk of sovereignty from the benches opposite when the Government uses the European Union as an excuse as to why it refuses to economically sanction Israel for genocide. Yet, we hear talk of sovereignty from the Government today when it is choosing, needlessly and basely, to abdicate that sovereignty to Europe in respect of international protection. The only explanation I can see is that the Minister thinks it will hereafter be a politically convenient excuse to blame Europe for the farce of his own making. The adoption of the pact by way of this Bill will not in itself address issues in terms of capacity or quality of accommodation, the standard of which has failed for decades to meet the threshold of human dignity. It will not address the delays in decision-making or the lack of enforcement should a person be deemed not to be entitled to international protection. It will not address concerns as to the impact the measures will have on the civil legal aid scheme or on Tusla, which is already stretched to breaking point. It will do none of that. These are all measures the Government could have taken but did not. They are things it could do now without legislating for the pact but it is not doing so. This Bill is not the solution to the problems faced by our international protection system. It is the Minister throwing in the towel and saying he is not up to the job. It will, however, do one job. It will give Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael a handy scapegoat for ongoing failures. It will do so at the expense of the Irish taxpayer and Irish sovereignty, and that is utterly shameful.

Sentiment score: 0.01