Independent Wexford TD Verona Murphy has called for a referendum on the EU Migration pact, claiming that entering into the pact would “take away” Irish sovereignty. Her comments came ahead of Wednesday’s vote in the European Parliament on several proposals which secured provisional approval from MEPs in December and in February.
In March, Ireland agreed to sign up to the new EU rules which aim to spread out the cost of housing migrants and to overhaul the accommodation system. The government claimed the decision to sign up to the rules agreed by EU governments last December – where countries are assigned a share of arrivals under an expedited border procedure – would accelerate its processes.
It came as Ministers last month set out plans to deliver 14,000 state-owed beds by 2028 to accommodate asylum applicants in an effort to move away from private providers. It comes as it was revealed last week that there has been a 72 per cent increase in the number of people seeking asylum here in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period last year – a rise of more than 2,000 people.
Deputy Murphy was appearing on RTE’s Upfront with Katie Hannon programme on Monday, alongside Fine Gael Senator Barry Ward and Dr Ciara Smyth of the University of Galway.
“To be accurate, it actually takes away our sovereignty in dealing with migration if we actually enter into this pact,” Murphy said when asked about the EU pact. The Independent said that “nobody knows anything about this pact,” adding that the lack of discussion was “not good enough.”
“[…] We already have two agreements in place, which were not put before the people, and that has been established through a PQ. Under Article 29 5.2 of the Constitution, where there is a pull on the public purse, it is supposed to be put before the Dail. They haven’t been to date, and this is a pact that nobody knows anything about,” she continued.
“I’m an elected representative. I haven’t actually been involved in any of the negotiations. It’s proposed to be discussed just in front of the Justice Committee for which [Senator Barry Ward] chairs, and I don’t believe that is good enough on behalf of the people who elected me,” Deputy Murphy said.
“I think it should either be through a referendum or at the very least through primary legislation,” she told Hannon. “We shouldn’t even be considering doing something of this nature that interferes with our sovereign right to deal with migration as an issue for Ireland, an island nation, which has very differing requirements to that of mainland Europe when it comes to migration.”
Asked about the need for cooperation from other European countries, Murphy replied: “But that hasn’t worked thus far. If you look at the Dublin convention, I mean, the requests – although we can’t gain information as to how many requests are made under Dublin 3 – to take back people who have already applied for protection status in other countries, we don’t have the information.
“I think, primarily, for me, this government needs to understand that this is an issue for the people. The people that I’m speaking to, and I’m running 12 candidates as an alliance in Wexford, we have traversed the whole county a number of times in the last month. People want an election; they believe this government has lost the mandate of the people, and they do not have the backing of the people to enter into this pact.”
Senator Barry Ward accused Murphy of making a “very misleading statement” about Ireland’s sovereignty of the State’s ability to deal with immigration.
“The reality is that this pact gives us options,” Ward said. “In no way does it detract from the sovereignty of this country.”
Responding, Verona Murphy said that the “only option is that it is not mandatory to opt in.”
“I think we should put it to the people,” she said. “It’s mandatory, it’s obligatory.”
Dr Smyth also challenged Murphy, stating: “The sovereignty question has already been disposed of. We are already a part of the common European asylum system. This is a reform of the common European asylum system, and we do get to choose whether to opt in or not.”
“But those agreements haven’t been agreed by the people, and if you look at Article 29 5.2, it tells you that they have to be put to the Dail in order for them to be passed if there is a pull on the public purse. That hasn’t happened. And actually, there is a constitutionality issue in relation to those agreements,” she said. “And it’s only rising now.”
Smyth did tell the programme that the pact “is quite dense, and not incredibly transparent.”
“It is an incredibly dense and untransparent document, I would say,” she said.
Asked if she was impressed with the government’s proposals to tackle immigration, the TD responded, “Not at all.”
“There is no point to immigration if we don’t have integration,” Murphy said, adding: “So ultimately the people who are now in IPAS centres, the aim would be that when they are granted asylum – and if they are granted asylum – that they then would be eligible for housing.”
The TD said it was a problem that Ireland currently has “over six and a half thousand now Irish citizens still with the IPAS system,” as she blasted “completely a lack of planning” on behalf of the government.
“Firstly, we have no accommodation. We don’t have it for anybody. We don’t have it for ourselves, we don’t have it for international protection applicants. We don’t have it for the refugees.”
“That, fundamentally, is a failure of government. If we had accommodation, this wouldn’t actually be a discussion at all.”
The TD, originally from Wexford, said that villages in the county were struggling, and that businesses in places including Fethard-on-Sea were “suffering greatly” due to a lack of accommodation in the holiday village.
“I think secondly, when people are looking for services – I appreciate what that lady said from Cork and Clonakilty – the reality is that the services are as much a part of the integration. I come from County Wexford, and we have a very rural village in Hook Head and Fethard-On-Sea.
“I know that the businesses are suffering greatly within the village of Fethard-on-sea. It’s primarily a holiday village of summertime that has had over 300 refugees in that village for the past two years. The businesses now are missing that accommodation on which to thrive under tourism. We have no other accommodation. One of them is actually on the verge of closing down.”
She also pointed to Rosslare, saying protests there centred around issues dealing with “legitimate planning.”
“Rosslare, which is what you would call a protest – but it’s a different type of protest – this protest is about legitimate planning. And there were exemptions brought in with regard to buildings, but we had a nursing home that was granted planning in Rosslare, a village and a community of about 1600 people who already accommodate two IPAS centres and refugee accommodation to the tune of almost 400 people,” the Wexford TD added.
She claimed that the government wasn’t “getting on top of” problems, telling host Hannon: “Ultimately the planning issues are still there.”
“Putting an extra 400 international protection applicants into a community where there [are] ultimately no jobs, there’s no means to get to jobs through the public transport system, those services don’t exist.
“If you can put 400 people into a community where you can’t get planning for a one-off house, there is something fundamentally wrong, and that is where the angst is coming from people. Their children are leaving the country because they can’t be housed. They’re emigrating.”
Asked where she would place IPAS applicants, Murphy said the capital could be a solution.
“We have lots of places in Dublin,” she said. “The hospital, for instance, that the HSE is about to sell off, can accommodate up to 500 applicants. The reality is that’s within a hub of where we can integrate, where we can provide jobs. [Where] the services are on the ground.”
“There’s no sense that Ireland is overrun, or that Ireland is full,” Dr Ciara Smyth told the programme, but added: “There is a problem about regulation, there is a problem about accommodation.”
The programme also heard from local people, including a young mother from Roscrea who had taken part in protests against IPAS centres in the Tipperary town. Independent election candidate Micheál Frain told the programme that Ballaghaderreen, which was been the scene of continued protests, “could have been a beacon for how to do integration in this country but the services have not [been] delivered to our town.”
Frain accused the government of not delivering on the services promised to the town, adding: “We are living proof in Ballaghaderreen that these services have not been delivered to our community […] we have just been let down time and time again.”
"Ballaghaderreen could have been a Beacon for how to do integration in this country but the services have not delivered to our town"
Micheál Frain independent candidate in the local elections #RTEUpfront pic.twitter.com/4hC2TU0Q96
— Upfront with Katie Hannon (@RTEUpfront) April 8, 2024