Walsh calls EU Migration Pact a ‘turning point’ for Irish immigration system

The approval of the EU Asylum and Migration Pact by the Dáil marks a turning point in the reform of Ireland’s immigration system, Maria Walsh MEP has said. 

Maria Walsh, who is a MEP for Midlands-North West, was involved in drafting the EU Migration Pact at European level, being one of only two Irish MEPs to sit on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), the Committee responsible for the Pact. 

The Shrule woman called the issue of migration one of the EU’s ‘biggest policy failures to date’, which is why Ireland’s adoption of the EU Migration Pact is ‘so important’. 

“The EU has a common external border, and we therefore need a common European migration policy.

“Without the Pact, Ireland would be an outlier in Europe. As a small island nation, we cannot afford to go it alone on one of the defining issues of our times. We would be left operating less effective measures, and would see a further increase in applications. By opting into the Pact, our laws on asylum and migration will be fully aligned with the EU for the first time,” continued Ms Walsh.

The former Rose of Tralee said many politicians have argued against the Pact for ‘their own political gain, with false and misleading information handed out as truth’. She named claims of a significant cost to Ireland in opting into the Pact as an example, but explained that really, 'the opposite is the case'. 

She said: “In addition to the savings from a more efficient system, there is also a substantial EU budget of €1 billion which we can access to support implementation of the Pact. Further funding will also be available in the next EU budget, which I intend to be closely involved in.”

The MEP referred to Sinn Féin’s opposition to the Pact ‘disappointing, but not surprising’, and said it highlighted one of the party’s defining characteristics, ‘a thinly-veiled Euroscepticism’. 

“Once again, Sinn Féin have opposed working with our European neighbours on a key European issue. The votes of Deputy McDonald and her colleagues in the Dáil highlight their party’s resistance to working as a bloc to harness the strength of the EU. Instead, they prefer to choose a go it alone routes, and deploy rhetoric such as ‘open borders’ and Irish ‘sovereignty’ in an attempt to scaremonger,” she added.

“The grown-ups in the room know that Ireland’s adoption of the EU Migration Pact is key to reforming our migration system, and I look forward to continuing my work on this issue over the course of the coming two-year implementation period,” Ms Walsh MEP concluded.