GE2024 immigraitonLAST UPDATE | 14 Nov
SINN FÉIN HAS said it would review the possibility of Ireland requiring that EU and EEA citizens coming to the country register their presence “within a reasonable time period of arrival”.
The measure was included in the party’s immigration policy which was announced in Dublin city centre today.
Leader Mary Lou McDonald vowed that the party would establish a new immigration management agency within the first six months of government.
Requirements for EU citizens to register are present in some other member states, party spokesperson Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire told reporters today – adding that the data would allow the new agency to correctly measure travel and population flows in the country.
Under the EU legislation which gives the right of free movement to citizens, a member states which imposes registration rules along these lines are only allowed to do so if that country requires its own citizens to hold a State identification card. Currently, Ireland does not.
According to the same EU legislation, Ireland would have to have the infrastructure in place for a national state ID card system if new rules were brought in that required EU citizens from elsewhere to register upon arrival.
Sinn Féin’s new immigration management agency would be an amalgamation of the current agencies – the International Protection Office, the International Protection Accommodation Service and the Garda National Immigration Bureau.
Because the staff already exists McDonald said she believes her party could get the new service up and running within the first six months of her time in government, if Sinn Féin is to enter power.
“There is a need for speed in all of these matters. The issue of processing applications – I mean sometimes it’s 12 months for a first decision and sometimes it’s taking the same on appeal. We have to bring that right down,” the Sinn Féin leader said.
She added: “I certainly think that with the correct resourcing and with the correct pace that we can certainly halve those times and if we can do it more quickly and more efficiently, we will.”
McDonald said that the processing system that is currently in place would remain-in-situ so that the process is fair and equal to anyone who has a claim to asylum in Ireland.
Among their other promises today, Sinn Féin said if it were elected into government it would establish a junior minister role for ‘unity’ who would draft a ‘green paper’ (a document weighing up the options in new legislation) on Irish reunification.
Ó Laoghaire also said that the party would be seeking a review of the current returns arrangements between Ireland and the UK governments, in the context of Brexit.
“It’s important that we improve relationships [with the UK] because, obviously, in recent years it’s been rather fraught,” he said.
He added: “Currently there is no arrangement for returning people who have come here with a previous [asylum] application in the UK. We’d need to be in a position to insure the return of [IP] applicants to Britain who have applied there.
“There are other areas, I think that the British government could assist the Irish government and vice versa in terms of checks on airplanes.”
Sinn Féin also want to take the provision of accommodation to international protection applicants into complete State control, to do away with private providers who the party says are only doing so in the interest of profit.
The party promises to deliver these accommodation centres in affluent and resource-rich areas and said that they will do so in an engaging and open manner with the local communities to hear any concerns through transparent communication systems.
Temporary protection applications, granted to Ukrainians under EU law following the 2022 Russian invasion, would be scrapped by March 2026 under Sinn Féin’s policy.
The party has previously voiced opposition to the protection status in the Dáil and claimed that housing supports for the cohort are “unfair” and preventing Irish citizens from getting on the property ladder.
The European Council are the authority who agree to grant temporary protection status to those from Ukraine and any decision must be voted for by 55% of EU leaders. EU leaders are due to review the protection arrangements in March 2026.
Challenged on that point, McDonald said she was aware of that and hoped that by March 2026 there would be the possibility for Ukrainians to return to their “homeland”. She reaffirmed her condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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