Oireachtas must be given opportunity to scrutinise Migration Pact implementation plan – Matt Carthy TD

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Matt Carthy TD has said, given the important issues of national sovereignty involved, the Oireachtas must be given the opportunity to scrutinise the government’s implementation plan for the EU Migration Pact.
 
Deputy Carthy was speaking after receiving a reply to a Parliamentary Question where the Minister for Justice failed to give any indication of when the full plan will be published.
 
Teachta Carthy said:
 
“The EU Migration Pact has serious implications for Irish sovereignty and our ability to make our own decisions in the key area of migration.
 
“Sinn Féin opposed the vast majority of measures contained within the EU’s Asylum and Migration Pact, because the majority of the Pact’s measures were not in Ireland’s interests.  Sinn Féin supported opting into two measures contained in the Pact, namely the Asylum Migration Management Regulation and the Eurodac Regulation.
 
“The Minister for Justice has failed to give a timeframe for publication of the government’s implementation plan for the EU Migration Pact.  This is not good enough.  The EU Migration Pact will have far reaching consequences and it is vital that the Oireachtas, as the representatives of the Irish people, are given the opportunity to scrutinise this implementation plan for which only a brief has been published to date.
 
“The government would have us believe that they needed to sign up to that Pact in order to address delays and enforcement in our international protection system.  This is simply not the case.
 
“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael stood over chaos, failure and profiteering for years when they should have acted.  The processing of applications is still too slow and enforcement is still haphazard. This has nothing to do with the EU.  This is to do with Irish Government failure.
 
“The outline of the implementation plan which has been published suggests that costs will be reduced by 60% – this is simply by reducing processing times something which could and should have been done long before now.
 
“The outline of the implementation plan also acknowledges that in 2024 over a €1billion was spent on accommodating IP applicants, 90% of whom were in accommodation that was commercially provided.  The Government has been far too slow to move to the provision of state owned accommodation.  There has been massive profiteering by individuals in the private sector who are making millions and have no regard to either the communities impacted or the welfare of those seeking international protection.”

The response to Deputy Carthy’s Parliamentary Question can be read here.