The Dáil has voted by 79 votes to 72 to opt into the controversial EU Migration and Asylum Pact for a standardised immigration control system across the 27 member states.
The pact has been in discussion at EU level for the past eight years and the Government announced three months ago that it would be opting in to the pact, which will come into effect in two years’ time.
Under the pact’s rules, there will be tougher border security checks including identification and health checks with the collection of biometric data including fingerprints for anyone above the age of six.
A substantial increase in the number of staff processing applications will now be required along with new processing and accommodation centres.
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Migrants will be accommodated in holding centres close to airports and ports, which the Government has insisted will not be detention centres, while asylum seekers’ applications will be processed within a maximum of 12 weeks.
Where an application is rejected, asylum seekers will have to be returned forcibly to their home country within the same period.
Member states will be required, based on their population size, to take in thousands of migrants from “frontline” countries such as Italy, Greece and Spain, or provide funding instead.
The Government has insisted that Ireland cannot go it alone on migration. Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said the agreement “represents an important balance between effective asylum and return procedures and protections for those seeking protection who are the most vulnerable. This agreement will allow for unprecedented reforms, and a more effective, coherent and fair system to manage migration in the EU.
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“Those who have a right to international protection must be given that status as quickly as possible. For those who are found not to have a right to international protection, they must return to their home country as quickly as possible.”
Critics have described the pact as the creation of “fortress Europe” and opposition parties have opposed the pact.
Over a number of days of debate, Sinn Féin has repeatedly called on the Government to opt out of the majority of the pact’s provisions, claiming the hands of future Irish governments will be tied.
Party leader Mary Lou McDonald has said the Government’s failure to opt out of any aspect of the pact is a “dangerous erosion” of Irish sovereignty.
Ms McDonald said that in dealing with taxation, foreign affairs and migration, “power should remain with the Irish Government”.
During the debate, Labour leader Ivana Bacik said there should be a united approach in the EU to migration but this pact did not properly deliver on solidarity with the global south. She rejected the Government’s “take it or leave it” attitude.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns described individual aspects of the pact as worth opting into but her party had “very serious human rights concerns” with the overall pact which she described as “dangerous”.
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