The Irish, across the centuries, have been forced to emigrate. We know the pain of having to say goodbye to loved ones at bus stations, airports and ports. In the summer of 1988 and having graduated from third level, I, like thousands of others, boarded a plane at Shannon Airport with a tourist visa and headed to New York city. I worked there for 18 months and returned to Ireland. Unfortunately, due the policies of the Government of the time unemployment was rampant. As I was unable to access employment in Ireland I secured a job in London, where I spent nine years. I was fortunate to be able to come home. I am sure there are many more Irish people across the world who would love to return but see the housing crisis and ever-rising cost of living as barriers. We must do more to encourage and help them to return. However, there is no doubt our international processing and enforcement needs reform. The delays in processing applications and appeals do not serve the State or the applicants well. We need a system that is fit for purpose. Those who are entitled to be here should be processed quickly so they can begin their new life and integrate into the local community. Equally, those who enter the country and are deemed to not be entitled to stay must be processed quickly. The Bill is designed to sign up to the EU migration and asylum pact in its totality but this is not in our interest. It goes against the recommendations of the Oireachtas justice committee and hands over power on migration to the European Union, thereby ignoring the unique challenges we face in this State, including the Border and the common travel area with Britain, which is a non-EU entity. While we have the right to opt in to and out of legislation governing the areas of freedom, security and justice on a case-by-case basis the Government is instead opting to plough straight into the adoption of all aspects of the pact. This erosion of our sovereignty does not serve the people of Ireland. The implementation of this Bill will hinder our ability as a State to make decisions on the issue of migration. The people should decide ourselves how to do this, not the EU.

Sentiment score: 0.08