A JUNIOR MINISTER has hit out at what he called sloganeering around “open and closed borders” in discussions on Ireland’s asylum and refugee system.

Thomas Byrne, who is Minister of State for Sport, said the phrasing is derived from the US and Britain and does not apply to Ireland over recent years.

The Fianna Fáil TD added that some people needed to “get real” in the immigration debate, given efforts over recent years to maintain free movement with Northern Ireland and the EU.

However, the government came in for criticism from Sinn Féin senator Lynn Boylan who appeared alongside Byrne on RTÉ this afternoon.

Boylan claimed that the “one single” department had been left “to carry the can” for managing Ireland’s response to increasing migration.

Speaking on Saturday with Barry Lenihan on RTÉ Radio One, Byrne said:

“This thing about open and closed borders . . . We fought for the last few years to have an open border on the North and an open border with Britain.

“So we don’t have closed borders and there’s no party in the country that supports them.”

He added: “It’s not just some slogan from the US or from Britain or anywhere like that.”

His comments follow on from Sinn Féin justice spokesperson’s Pa Daly telling a Dáil debate on immigration last week that nation states “can and should manage their borders”. Daly added that Sinn Féin “do not believe in an open border policy” for Ireland.

When asked about Daly’s comments in an interview with The Journal published today, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said everyone knows that the asylum system is slow and needs to be better resourced than it is at present.

“You have to have a rule-based system. I hear sometimes people don’t want this open borders thing – what is that? I mean, nobody has that. You have to have an immigration system and some of that is about kind of ‘controls’, to use the term,” McDonald said.

“So you need rules that are transparent, that are fair and then you need the system to be efficient, because delay is a problem for everybody.”

On RTÉ this afternoon, Fianna Fáil TD Byrne was asked about protests taking place in a number of counties around the country this week and in recent weeks, focused on the arrival of asylum seekers into communities.

The Meath East deputy said there were other realities that need to be accepted by anyone examining immigration, particularly that “people are moving” from country to country around the world for different reasons.

“Whether it’s Ukrainians coming through from war, or whether it’s people moving from other wars or climate change, or lack of water, lack of food, they are fundamental issues that are not going to change no matter what the loud voices say at the meetings,” he said.

Marian Harkin, Sligo–Leitrim TD, told the same programme that at some meetings held in communities, including one in her constituency, it is the “loudest voices” who are often heard.

She criticised what she called a lack of consultation with communities ahead of the arrivals of people seeking safety.

Boylan, the Dublin-based Sinn Féin senator, told the programme that there has not been a “plan-lead approach” by the government.

“It’s one single department [Department of Children and Integration] that has been left to carry the can for it and for dealing with what we’ve seen is unprecedented numbers of people coming into the country,” Boylan said.

And what you’re seeing is that we’re an offer of accommodation comes up, the department has to go with that. And so it’s not looking at what the resources are in that area or, for example, in those areas that might rely on tourism for a short period of time.”

Boylan added that there needs to be a “whole of government approach” which allows communication with local communities and better resourcing of areas welcoming new arrivals.

As part of this, Boylan said the government needed to “listen to the concerns” around resourcing for medical and other supports, but also be able to “decipher” between those who are coming from “an agenda that’s just opposed to foreign migration”.