Frances Fitzgerald defends Irish response to migrant crisis

Ireland is taking more than its fair share of migrants and is not opting out of European Union measures designed to tackle the current crisis, Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has said.

In a statement released on Friday, Ms Fitzgerald said she is “concerned that certain commentary may have given the impression that Ireland has made a decision to opt out of measures designed to alleviate the current crisis”.

German officials dismissed reports that Chancellor Angela Merkel criticised Ireland's asylum policy in Vienna on Thursday.

In a press conference, the German leader said: “Some countries . . . are not participating in common European asylum policy, for instance Britain, Ireland and Denmark. But those that participate have a common obligation here.”

Officials in Berlin said this was not a criticism of Ireland, which secured some opt-outs from EU asylum law in 1999, but an acknowledgment of this fact.

However, Berlin says there is nothing stopping Dublin from opting into a new asylum deal to help share the burden.

Ms Fitzgerald said that, since the Amsterdam Treaty of 1999, “Ireland has been party to a protocol under which we may opt in to such measures on a case-by-case basis”.

“The principal reason for this approach is to safeguard the common travel area that Ireland shares with the United Kingdom,” she added. “I am concerned that certain commentary may have given the impression that Ireland has made a decision to opt out of measures designed to alleviate the current crisis. In fact, the opposite is the case.

“The Government has chosen to participate in the measure to relocate 40,000 asylum seekers from their current locations in Italy and Greece.

“We are doing so in a spirit of solidarity with our European partners. This is demonstrated by the fact that we have agreed to accept some 600 of these 40,000 people over the next two years. This is proportionately greater than our population share of the EU.”

Resettled

She also said the Government has separately agreed to resettle 520 refugees from outside the EU, which she claimed is “nearly double the share proposed for us by the European Commission”, and pointed to the “unprecedented” deployment of the LÉ

Niamh

and LÉ

Eithne

in the Mediterranean.

In comparison to the Irish position, Austria and Germany have will accept 80,000 and 800,000 migrants respectively this year.

Adjusting for population, matching the engagement of Austria or Germany would require Ireland to accept about 40,000 asylum seekers into the country this year – roughly equivalent to the population of Drogheda.

By the end of the year, Ms Fitzgerald said Ireland will also have provided €41 million towards helping people displaced by the Syrian crisis.