Helen McEntee

A bill to amend the International Protection Act 2015 will be brought to the Oireachtas after the High Court found in March that the UK’s post-Brexit designation as a safe country for asylum returns was not made in line with EU law.

Handing down the judgment in that case, Ms Justice Siobhán Phelan said: “The failure to require the minister to be satisfied that a person would not be subjected to serious harm on transfer to a third country, if designated as safe, means that Ireland is in breach of the requirements of EU law, specifically Article 3(3) of the Dublin III Regulations.”

The government will now seek to amend the 2015 Act to insert provision for consideration of serious harm to take place under section 21, section 50A and section 72A. It will also allow for family and private life rights to be considered in the context of issuing a return order under section 50A.

Speaking yesterday, justice minister Helen McEntee said: “Ireland has and needs to have a firm rules-based system where rules are in place, where rules are enforced, and where rules are seen to be enforced.

“Ireland and the UK share a common interest in the effective operation of the Common Travel Area, and work closely together to prevent any abuses of the CTA.

“To combat any abuse of the CTA, it is essential that we have mechanisms in place to return people to the UK where the UK is deemed to be the appropriate country to process any application for protection.

“The arrangement we have had in place since Brexit is a reciprocal arrangement, to ensure that neither of our countries are a place for people to evade or obstruct the immigration controls and processes of the other. It hasn’t been operational owing to a High Court judgment which identified a legal issue which had a bearing on the operation of that arrangement.

“The legislative changes that I will bring to the Houses in the coming weeks will ensure that the arrangement can be operationalised.

“The is one of a number of measures which I am taking to make sure we have an immigration system which is firm but fair. Fair on those who need it and firm on those who don’t.”

The government has said 80 per cent of asylum seekers arriving in the State in recent months have come across the land border with the UK, i.e. via Northern Ireland. However, the Irish Refugee Council has challenged the government to explain how it calculated this figure.

Earlier this week, Amnesty International urged the government not to “mimic the UK” by seeking to remove asylum seekers from the State.