The Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has welcomed this week’s European Commission decisions confirming Ireland’s opt-in to seven of the legislative measures in the EU Asylum and Migration Pact.
Minister McEntee said “I warmly welcome the formal confirmation by the European Commission of Ireland’s participation in the Pact.
“EU migration is a shared European challenge, and the Pact will greatly assist Ireland to continue taking an active role in managing migration in Europe, securing national and EU borders, and ensuring our asylum systems are cohesive, fair, and efficient.
“I will continue to work with fellow EU States to protect our borders and tackle secondary movement. This can only be achieved by harmonising EU asylum procedures and processes under the Pact,” she said.
New legislation will be introduced to repeal and replace the International Protection Act 2015. This legislation will pass through the Dáil and the Seanad and will be subject to full debate and scrutiny in each house.
The legislative changes will provide for:
- the full repeal of the International Protection Act 2015.
- legally binding timeframes for making decisions on international protection applications and appeals.
- a greater focus on efficient returns for unsuccessful applicants.
- accelerated processing including for those from safe countries, those with no or false documents, and those who have crossed borders illegally.
- those who are processed under the border procedure will not be authorised to enter Ireland and will be accommodated at designated locations. Their applications, appeals and removal decisions must be processed within three months.
- new dedicated accommodation for those who are being processed in the border procedure or who are due to be returned to another country.
- a new solidarity mechanism requiring countries to either make a financial contribution to or agree to relocate some asylum seekers from countries facing particular pressures.
- expansion of the categories of migrants who will be fingerprinted and checked against the Eurodac database.
Minister McEntee also stated:
“I will continue to introduce changes to ensure the integrity and efficiency of Ireland’s international protection system.
“I am strengthening legislation and increasing the resources of the International Protection Office to improve processing times. The introduction of enhanced screening and security measures, as well as accelerated processing, will reduce secondary movements and lead to a reduction in overall applications. Early this week I announced the expansion of accelerated processing to applicants from Jordan.
“The faster we can make decisions, the sooner people who need our protection are given the opportunity to re-build their lives here, and the easier it is to return a person who is found not to have a right to be here.”
Accelerated processing was introduced by Minister McEntee in November 2022 and there has been a reduction of up to 70% in applications from the countries which are subject to accelerated processing.
Opting into the Pact provides a significant opportunity for Ireland to redesign the system for granting protection in line with European common standards, McEntee said.