{"id":165745,"date":"2025-11-06T08:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T08:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/165745\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T08:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T08:52:07","slug":"ireland-must-not-be-seen-as-the-easy-place-to-get-into-says-minister-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/165745\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland \u2018must not be seen as the easy place to get into\u2019, says Minister \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Government<\/a> policy should make sure that Ireland is not seen as excessively easy to get into for migrants<\/a> and asylum seekers, according to Thomas Byrne<\/a>, Minister of State for European Affairs.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Spain<\/a>, Mr Byrne said it was important to make sure economic migrants were not using the international protection mechanism to enter the country and that Government measures in this area would be effective. <\/p>\n

The migration issue will be a priority for the Irish presidency of the EU Council, which begins in July 2026, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEconomic migrants are coming in [to Ireland] through the usual channels for that purpose. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s less of a concern, but there is a process to deal with that in terms of where skills are needed in the economy, where workers are needed,\u201d Mr Byrne told The Irish Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s certainly something that the State needs. But if people are applying for international protection, then they should be coming under the conditions of the Geneva Convention, and that\u2019s not happening in all cases and that\u2019s not the reason people are coming in all cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Byrne made the comments during a visit to Madrid, where the 90th anniversary of Irish-Spanish diplomatic relations is being marked. <\/p>\n

The Government has been considering new measures in this area, such as accommodation charges for international protection applicants<\/a> who have permission to work. <\/p>\n

Eight thousand such applicants could be liable for charges that would range from \u20ac15 to \u20ac238 per week, depending on earnings.<\/p>\n

Mr Byrne described the approach to this issue by Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> as \u201cvery assertive in trying to make sure that we have a fair migration system\u201d. He added that \u201cwe definitely want to make sure that we\u2019re not seen as the easy place to get into because that damages our credibility as well within the European Union\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, there was a reception in the residence of the Irish Ambassador to Spain, Brian Glynn. The close ties between the two countries were very much in evidence, as the Ambassador gave a speech in Spanish and Irish and guests drank cava and stout.<\/p>\n

Mr Byrne\u2019s Spanish counterpart, Fernando Sampedro, also spoke at the event, highlighting the \u201cshared priorities, the shared perspective and strong mutual understanding\u201d between Ireland and Spain. He cited the many facets of the bilateral relationship, ranging from trade and investment to cultural exchanges and tourism \u2013 with 2.8 million Irish visits to Spain last year.<\/p>\n

There has also been a shared sense of priorities on the international stage: last year, in a co-ordinated move, the two countries, along with Norway, formalised their recognition of a Palestinian state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, Spain\u2019s left-wing coalition government has been taking what seems to be a much laxer approach to immigration than most EU countries, including Ireland. Yet, Mr Byrne said there was plenty to admire in Spain\u2019s presidency of the EU in the second half of 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey definitely got a lot done,\u201d he said. \u201cThe migration package was put through at that point, Ukraine\u2019s EU accession [negotiations began], some of the big moments actually happened during that presidency, so they\u2019ve got a good reputation … We will look to what they achieved and what they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to what will be \u201ca very active Irish presidency\u201d on the migration issue. <\/p>\n

Mr Byrne also said the bloc\u2019s enlargement will be a big priority for the Irish presidency, including making progress with Ukraine\u2019s accession, concluding negotiations with Montenegro and \u201cmoving very significantly forward\u201d with Albania\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Government policy should make sure that Ireland is not seen as excessively easy to get into for migrants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,56,11,12,15,16,19614,5,383,95430,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-165745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-immigration","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-migrant-crisis","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-spain","21":"tag-thomas-byrne","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115501907497117767","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165745","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=165745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}