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Updated 12.01 pm
A LATE NIGHT meeting between EU members last night failed to reach an agreement on the resettlement of 120,000 asylum seekers.
It had been hoped that the meeting between interior ministers would produce a plan to redistribute refugees away from Greece, Italy and Hungary, which have struggled over the past number of weeks due to the huge influx in numbers.
The EU Justice and Home Affairs Council came to an agreement to relocate 40,000 people, with Ireland expected to take on 600 applicants.
Speaking after the unresolved meeting, Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald, said,
“This is a humanitarian crisis which has continued to escalate and to which there are no simple answers. No one State can deal with this issue on their own and a coherent EU-wide response is needed.
On RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, she added that most of the 600 asylum seekers Ireland will take are expected here at Christmas after their status is assessed in Europe:
The 600 will start arriving once these hot spots have been established and they are established this week, I would expect that the refugees will be assessed there and will be relocated to Ireland in the coming weeks. And certainly before the end of the year I would expect quite a large proportion of that 600 to have arrived.
These 600 refugees are part of an EU-wide plan that Ireland has opted-into. Fitzgerald said that Ireland may choose to opt-out of any new additions to the crisis plan.
Ireland may agree to accept further refugees of its own accord, she added. Last week the government said that Ireland will welcome 4,000 refugees as part of the country’s direct response to the current crisis.
Yesterday’s failed EU meeting came as Hungary effectively sealed it’s main border with Serbia preventing refugees from entering the country. A state of emergency has now been declared at the border.
Separately, Austria and Slovakia also said they would copy economic powerhouse Germany, the main destination for migrants, in reinstating frontier controls.
The move caused long traffic jams on the Germany-Austria border and major disruption to rail services.
Poland said it was considering similar steps while the Netherlands said it would have “more patrols” on its frontiers.
EU states can impose temporary controls for security reasons under the Schengen treaty but there are fears the very ideal of a borderless Europe could collapse.
With reporting by Rónán Duffy and © – AFP 2015
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The public service will finally bankrupt this country once and for all. The money just isn’t there to meet their demands. Unless the Government can raise money through taxing the private sector workers or raising corporation tax, there is no way this money can be paid. Then again a Government desperate to get re-elected are capable of doing anything to hold on to power. The unions are well aware of when the best time to declare war is.
@jo mixon: It’s the Consultants on big money who are draining the system not the hardworking nurses imo.
@ianglen: And why is 1 in 5 consultant jobs unfilled?
Perhaps you should campaign for further pay cuts for consultants ?
ANd any that dont like it can go off to Canada/Australia.
@jo mixon: Weel . They found the money to give the banks a 30 year tax write off.
@jo mixon: And there’s way too many clipboards managers as well. Morale isn’t good among hospital staff atm.
@ianglen: anyone who believes this is an idiot.
@jo mixon: yep the public service ie people who live work and spend in this country as unlike nama bondholders banks developers tax exiles and the other fuxxers who have had free run protected by government ask my hole merry xmas fg trolls
@ianglen: actually..healthcare workers are are team, we work together to care for our patients and it is an insult when ignorant comments such as this are made. I am an NCHD and work 80+hour weeks. I will leaving Ireland in July to Canada…leaving my family and friends in Ireland..this is not for money, but for a decent work life balance and a better system. I will be supporting my nursing colleagues as they strike. The system needs to change and the public needs to stop pointing fingers at those healthcare workers in it; we all work hard to do our best in a system stretched beyond its limits.
Duties above their original description. Bloody unions will co.e up with any inventive way of saying we want more money . Black hole of a health service. Cost multiples of the bus in Manchester and services the same amount of people where is the logic.
@john s: exactly, wont fix or go in any way to solve the mess that is the HSE and the inefficiences in that system which results in suffering for everyone
People blame consultants. Consultants are amazing, not when you have to fork in 150 euro for a consultancy,but when your life is in their hands. They are people that fix people. They face more decisions in a week, than a bank CEO and get paid less. I would hate their job.
This problem is on repeat now, Wage Inflation. We have an artificial property bubble that is driven by lack of supply. It is the source of all our ills at the moment. Money is the means to make things more affordable, but the driver is affordability.
Insurance, mortgage rates, house prices, we’re like an out of shape flabby tiger.
It will tank the economy, it tanked it before. It depends on Government action and leadership they need put about 2Bn into a NAMA style build project. This will just get worse and the strikes and protests will continue. We all sign into a private/public economic stability model, where the government delivers affordable housing as a core tenet and freely fully opens sectors such as insurance etc., mortgage rates. This public worker, private workers is nonsense, we all live here.
Remember the New children’s Hospital is running close to a billion over cost which also has to be paid the whole system is f##} up
Follow a consultation, Dr, Nurse and hca for a week at work and tell me that 99% don’t deserve a good wage compared to all the other fu#k wits in the HSE and other government departments.
Leo our leader was in charge of Health for a while and did SFA and
watch as he performs the same act again as the unions walk all over him
Blame the unions, blame the consultants, blame the public service. Such other and total rubbish.
The problems have been pointed out repeatedly by the unions and the nurses and the unions and even the patients and have been ignored by government for years,
The hard working private sector pay for everything. Wrong guess what public servants pay tax as well.
The HSE and Dept of Health is top heavy and technically in the dark ages as regards records and such. The actual part of the system of curing and helping people works well its the admin and management that costs so much.
Doctors should do doctors work and managers manage the business. At times its the other way around.
Take it apart and start again is the only solution
Britain spends 125 billion with 70 million people we spend 20 billion with 4 million people. I suppose some Numpties are going to tell me that Britain are spending too little ???? Doing the math that means Britain should spend a 2.2 trillion. Scary isnt it ????
@Marcus o Dhonnghaile: £127 ( 142 billion euro) billion spend is on England alone ( pop 55 million).
Irish population is 4.7 million HSE spend is 17 billion.
Not sure where you are getting the 2.2 trillion?
I find this scary, but for different reasons.
have your say