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More than 80% of asylum applicants come to Ireland over the border from the North, Justice Minister Helen McEntee has said.
Ms McEntee was speaking at the Oireachtas Justice Committee on Tuesday about the Migration and Asylum Pact, which Ireland is set to opt into.
One major feature of the pact is a new “border procedure”, which aims to increase the speed of processing of people coming from safe countries. It will also apply to any entrants who have destroyed their identity documents, people believed to be a danger to national security, or those from countries with a 20% or lower approval rate for asylum applications in the EU.
Answering a question from Fianna Fáil senator Robbie Gallagher, Ms McEntee said that around 5,000 people have applied for asylum in Ireland this year and over 50% of those are “secondary movements” — where a person has come through another EU country.
She said that the pact would allow for easier returns of those people and would mean Ireland “requires less accommodation”. She said the current system “is not working for anybody”.
She said that a “significant proportion” of asylum seekers are arriving over the border with Northern Ireland.
“We engage with UK authorities on a regular basis,” Ms McEntee added.
“We have a Common Travel Area Committee which meets on a quarterly, basis but we also have continuous engagement between our relevant departments.
“That is the challenge that we have, that we have advocated for no border on this island. I don’t think anybody would say that we shouldn’t have that situation, but it is absolutely a challenge.”
Ms McEntee said that she aims to bring forward legislation aimed at strengthening the returns process with Britain.
The minister said that the pact, which the Government envisages implementing by the middle of 2026, would mean quicker application processing and people spending “less time in State-provided accommodation and, ultimately, are more likely to be returned to their country of origin”.
Ms McEntee said that, if Ireland does not sign up to the pact, it is likely to lead to an increase in asylum applications — as it would leave the country processing applications more slowly.
However, she rejected figures put forward by senator Sharon Keogan, who suggested Ireland could have to accept over 100,000 asylum seekers based on an equitable share on an EU-wide basis.
She said that Ms Keogan had based her figure on overall migration into the EU, not just asylum seekers.
Ireland could pay almost €13m instead of taking in 648 asylum seekers every year under the pact.
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