Mattie McGrath slams the Irish govt's total lack of engagement on the Global Compact on Migration
TD Mattie McGrath told Minister David Stanton in the Dáil that the most important concern he had about the Irish government's decision to si…
Mattie McGrath slams the Irish govt's total lack of engagement on the Global Compact on Migration
TD Mattie McGrath told Minister David Stanton in the Dáil that the most important concern he had about the Irish government's decision to sign the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is Marrakesh this week was the absolute and total lack of engagement with the Irish public or the Dáil on the pact.
"Surely a decision like this should be debated in this house?"
McGrath also wanted to know why so many countries had pulled out of the pact and what concerns they were seeing in it that the Irish government was not.
Stanton said the Irish government had been engaged with the progress of the Global compact and closely involved with its development for some time and that it didn't infringe on Ireland's sovereignty. He said he couldn't speak as to why other governments in the world had decided to pull out of the pact.
He said the compact placed state-sovereignty at its heart meaning that it respects the rights of all countries to control their borders and retain control of their migration policy.
"The compact will not grant the same rights to migrants as Irish nationals. The compact will not remove the distinction between legal and illegal migrants, rather it re-enforces this distinction. The compact will not make criticising migration a crime as some have claimed. It simply places an importance on combating xenophobia and racism and I think we're all agreed on the importance of that. The compact will not infringe on Ireland's ability to operate its own migration policy"
Stanton said he wanted to stress the non-legally binding nature of the pact and said it recognised the contribution of migrants to nations and works to optimise the benefits of migration "for countries of origin, countries of destination, for migrants and their families and for their receiving communities". Stanton continued that he wanted to stress compact's valuable role as a framework through which nation states get better co-operate globally on migration. He said migration was an issue that was not going away.
TD Michael Fitzmaurice also questioned Minister Stanton.
Broadcast: 12 Dec 2018
https://youtu.be/0Vc4QM3jyLk
https://www.invidio.us/channel/UCgzyycFR6PEv-B90rAiFsQg
