It is an “absolute disgrace” that the Government has agreed to opt-in to the new EU migration pact without knowing how much it may eventually cost, according to Meath TD Peadar Tóibín.
The Aontú leader is warning that the deal sees Ireland hand “significant sovereignty” – with Brussels empowered to make decisions that will “no longer necessarily be in our interests”.
Deputy Tóibín was speaking after the Dáil voted to opt into the pact by a narrow 79 to 72 margin late on Wednesday night.
The wide-ranging pact, which is due to come into force across the EU in two years’ time will ensure Europe responds to the challenges of rising migration as a unified bloc.
The pact will see common rules introduced across the bloc – with countries legally obliged to process asylum applications in a faster manner.
It also aims to eliminate ‘pull factors’ encouraging migration to Europe as well as secondary movements – where people move from one EU country to seek asylum in another.
The pact is opposed by parties on both the far right and left of the political spectrum; however, the Government has described it as an “absolute game-changer” and insisted it contains “nothing that does not benefit Ireland”.
On Newstalk Breakfast, however, Deputy Tóibín said Ireland was handing over control of the situation without knowing what may happen in the future.
“[These are decisions] in relation to the number of people that Ireland takes in the future or the financial contribution that we make in lieu of taking those people,” he said.
“The difficulty I have with that is, now we've handed significant sovereignty to the EU, who will make decisions that will no longer necessarily be in our interests.”
Sovereignty
He warned that while EU membership has been largely good for Ireland, the 2008 economic collapse and subsequent bailout highlighted what can go wrong when you hand over power for key decisions.
“The European Union has been good for Ireland but now and again, the European Union will make decisions in the interests of France and Germany and the larger countries and as a result, the whole idea of being able to self-determine is really important,” he said.
“Like I asked the Taoiseach, ‘how much will this cost?’ The Taoiseach admitted to me on the floor of the Dáil, he does not know how much it's going to cost.
“I think that's an absolute disgrace that the Government is signing up politically to a process and it does not know how much it will cost.”
Brexit
When it was put to him that his argument is similar to that made by Brexit politicians in the run-up to Britain’s referendum on EU membership, he noted that Britain is not the only country to go its own way on these issues.
“British uselessness and disfunction cannot be seen as the template for democratic self-determination across the world,” he said.
“There are many other examples of countries that actually control their national self-interest in a very logical and functional way and I can give you two examples of Australia and Denmark who do that in a very good way.
“The point here is we have a Government that actually has created chaos within the system of migration control over the last two or three years, has only woken up to the fact that it's actually an important issue in the last six months and now is actually handing this power over to the European Union instead.”
Human rights organisations have also criticised the pact – which includes plans to hold some asylum seekers in ‘designated locations’ while their applications are fast-tracked and even send them to countries outside the EU that are deemed “safe”, in some circumstances.
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