Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has denied that Ireland is \u201cceding any sovereignty\u201d to Brussels by enacting the EU Migration Pact.<\/p>\n
In a fiery D\u00e1il exchange with Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald, Mr Martin insisted that Ireland will \u201cstill make decisions on whether applicants are granted protection status\u201d.<\/p>\n
The EU Migration and Asylum Pact will be enacted in Ireland on Friday, two years after the D\u00e1il voted to pass it by just seven votes. It is attempting to harmonise asylum laws across the bloc, and speed up the asylum and returns processes.<\/p>\n
During Leaders\u2019 Questions, Ms McDonald said Ireland had made the wrong decision by opting in and will \u201chand over powers on migration to the European Union\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe in Sinn F\u00e9in have made it clear that this pact undermines Irish sovereignty,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have told the Government that decisions on migration should be taken \u2014 must be taken \u2014 by the people of this country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have also told it that the pact ignores our unique challenges and circumstances, especially that our country is still partitioned and that we share a common travel area with Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms McDonald argued that it will not deliver a \u201crobust, fast, enforced system\u201d in Ireland, nor will it provide \u201crespect, dignity and a human rights-based response for those who flee war and persecution for safety\u201d.<\/p>\n
She also said that while the number of people seeking asylum has fallen, the overall number of applications and appeals pending has risen.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin accused Ms McDonald of being \u201cdishonest\u201d and being \u201cdeliberately manipulative and is endeavouring to win votes on the back of the migration issue\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem for Sinn F\u00e9in is that it is flip-flopping all over the place,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes when the far left and the far right unite against legislation, I think we have hit the right spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also argued that a Sinn F\u00e9in MEP voted in favour of two parts of the pact in the European Parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not ceding any sovereignty. We are not giving away any decision-making powers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIrish officials will still make decisions on whether applicants are granted protection status, An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na will still police our borders, and Ireland will still control our deportation process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pact does not result in Ireland giving up its sovereignty in the area of immigration and no amount of empty, shallow sound bites will change that reality and that truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several Sinn F\u00e9in TDs have posted nearly identical messages on social media in recent days, saying they have had a \u201clarge number of emails\u201d on the migration pact, noting that the party was going to \u201cseek a special debate\u201d on Tuesday about the issue, and encouraging people to email Government TDs to say they want the pact debated.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin said that a \u201cflurry of activity was created last week by all sorts online \u2014 filling everyone’s emails and telling them something desperate is going to happen in the next week because of this pact coming in\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have never had a situation where legislation was passed and an attempt was made to try and fool the people into believing that it is all going to happen this week when in fact, this has been debated at great length in the House already.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another minister told the Irish Examiner that they have never seen a situation where Ireland opted into an agreement, and the legislation underpinning it was signed into law, only for there to be calls for legislation to be debated on again.<\/p>\n
It comes amid concern in some parts of Government that an alleged stabbing in Belfast on Monday evening could become a \u201ctinder box\u201d.<\/p>\n
Louise Burne is a political correspondent for the Irish Examiner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has denied that Ireland is \u201cceding any sovereignty\u201d to Brussels by enacting the EU Migration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,1629,60,43],"class_list":["post-490855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-immigration","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}