According to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, the problem with Ireland’s immigration system isn’t the number of immigrants coming to Ireland – it’s how the process is being handled.
The remarks were made on Thursday this week at the launch of the party’s immigration policy in advance of the upcoming general election.
Gript asked McDonald if the party’s position was that the immigration rate is not too high, but that the immigration system is simply being handled in an ineffective way.
“That’s the issue, yeah,” the party leader responded.
The party’s Foreign Affairs spokesman, Matt Carthy TD, explained the party’s issue with the current system in more detail.
“As you know, and as everybody knows, anybody in the world is entitled, virtually, to go anywhere else in the world and seek international protection,” he said, adding: “The key here is how that is dealt with in the state in which people arrive.”
He went on to describe the current Government system as “haphazard.”
“It has been chaotic and it has led to huge frustration and anger within some local communities,” he said.
“That’s not the fault, by the way, of those seeking international protection; that’s the fault of successive Irish governments.
“…if I, or anyone else, own a property on a main street of a town or village in this country, and I want to turn that into a profit-making premises—if I try to open up a coffee shop, or hotel, or any other form of commercial business—I will meet obstacle after obstacle by the agencies of the state. But if I want to actually turn that into an accommodation centre, I will make quite a large amount of money and secure a lucrative contract.
“That is unfair because, also, if I decide to take the latter option, I will not have to engage with the local community at all in a way that I would for all the other things.
“So, these things need to change. This isn’t about pitting one set of people against another; it’s about actually applying a common-sense, practical set of measures that ensure that everybody can have confidence that the system operates fairly and effectively.”
The party also called for the establishment of a new “Immigration Management Agency”, which would operate under a new Department of Justice and Home Affairs “to ensure cohesion in planning, sharing of information and speedy decision making.”
“It will have responsibility for processing applications, enforcement of rules, registration, and accommodation,” the party said in a statement.