Dear Editor,
I must say, the swift approach our government is taking to endorse the suggested EU migration pact, citing its potential resolution to our ongoing international protection issues, is concerning (“Implementation of EU migration pact and new residential facilities planned for Ireland to be completed by November”, News, 14th June). Intriguingly, they appear to refrain from substantiating this claim with numerical evidence. Presently, the sole prompt statistic obtained across the asylum segment is the weekly report on new entrants by International Protection Accommodation Service (Ipas) (whose release was delayed by two weeks prior to the June 7th vote), whilst the numbers associated with the International Protection Office’s backlog, the International Protection Appeals Tribunal, and the deportation section of the Irish Immigration Service are essentially veiled in secrecy.
Those in the political arena who oppose the agreement emphasise sovereignty deprivation (an irrelevant point, given its long forgone concession to prior EU laws) and highlight Denmark’s decision to abstain. However, they fail to recognise that the Danes sensibly refrained from taking part in any EU asylum application legislation since 1992 and, fortunately for them, possess a legal mechanism which disallows the judicial review of rejected asylum appeals (a primary source of delay on our side).
I eagerly anticipate an engaging discussion on this matter, although I fear that the factual insights needed for such discussions are sorely lacking across our political community. Your sincerely,
MICHAEL FLYNN,
Hopes to make a livelihood from her fascinating, vivid, peculiar and amusing illustrations of saints – Aoife Cawley
Bayside,
Dublin 13.