\n The Government should not \u201crule out\u201d sending failed asylum seekers to deportation hubs outside the European Union, the Taoiseach has said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Miche\u00e1l Martin said migration was a broader issue across Europe, and called for discussions between Ireland and Britain to return people who cross over the border.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThese are issues we will examine, and we\u2019re not ruling anything out,\u201d Mr Martin told RT\u00c9 Radio One.\n <\/p>\n
\n He gave his backing to T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris who, on Wednesday, said the Government should reconsider its immigration policies in a \u201cvery serious way\u201d.\n <\/p>\n
\n Mr Harris said Ireland\u2019s migration numbers were \u201ctoo high\u201d.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Fine Gael leader said there were individuals who arrive in Ireland, are denied asylum and then take too long to leave the country.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Taoiseach said between 70% and 80% of applicants for international protection are refused on the first appeal stage.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThat\u2019s significant, because it really points to that what you\u2019re looking at here is economic migration primarily,\u201d Mr Martin said.\n <\/p>\n
\n He said people should not come to Ireland if they \u201cknow deep down\u201d they will have their applications refused.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think the message has gone out. If you don\u2019t qualify and you know you\u2019re not going to qualify, don\u2019t bother coming,\u201d Mr Martin said.\n <\/p>\n
\n He added justice minister Jim O\u2019Callaghan was looking at \u201cevery aspect\u201d of migration policy, while adding the appeals process needed to be sped up.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe are appointing more and recruiting more to accelerate the appeals process to make sure people know procedures are strict here, they\u2019re firm, they\u2019re fair,\u201d the Taoiseach said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Mr Martin said he believed the \u201cvast majority\u201d of asylum seekers were coming over the border with the North.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThese are issues we can discuss with the British government in terms of returns and so on,\u201d Mr Martin said.\n <\/p>\n
\n While he has backed Mr Harris\u2019s comments, there has been some frustration within Fianna F\u00e1il about the Fine Gael leader’s remarks.\n <\/p>\n
\n One Fianna F\u00e1il minister said Mr Harris\u2019s comments had been seeking to undermine the Government and Taoiseach, calling them \u201ccorrosive\u201d.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cJim O\u2019Callaghan has done more in nine months on migration than Simon Harris and Fine Gael have done in 14 years,\u201d they said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cMiche\u00e1l Martin never spent his time as T\u00e1naiste undermining the Taoiseach.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Another Fianna F\u00e1il source was critical of Mr Harris\u2019s comments, describing them as \u201cnot helpful\u201d.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201c[He was] mute on it throughout his time in cabinet and as Taoiseach when inward immigration actually peaked, and the moment Fianna F\u00e1il takes the portfolio and actually starts making progress he decides to undermine it as soon as the road gets rocky for him,\u201d the source said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cJustice and immigration is becoming a differentiator between Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael and they mustn\u2019t like it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n They added people would \u201csee through\u201d Mr Harris\u2019s comments if progress was made by Mr O\u2019Callaghan.\n <\/p>\n
\n Labour MEP Aodhan \u00d3 R\u00edord\u00e1in called Mr Harris’s remarks deeply irresponsible, disgraceful and extremely dangerous.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\u201cPolitical leaders have a responsibility to choose their words carefully,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen the T\u00e1naiste says \u2018numbers are too high\u2019, it sends a message that the Government itself is buying into divisive rhetoric. It is reckless, harmful, and beneath the office he holds.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government should not \u201crule out\u201d sending failed asylum seekers to deportation hubs outside the European Union, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,56,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-154102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-immigration","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115465350570418416","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}