The Labour Party has accused Fine Gael helping to push through a new regulation to speed up deportations with the support of a “ragtag bunch of fascists and racists”. 

On Monday, the EU agreed to allow officials to search people’s homes “or other relevant premises” if they do not comply with a deportation order. 

The new rules also allow offshore return hubs to be set up in countries outside the EU, where migrants could be held before they are deported to their home countries. 

On The Claire Byrne Show, Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty said the new Return Regulation will ‘not exactly’ mean deportations like those carried out by ICE in the United States. 

“One in five people, when they get that piece of paper to say you're not legally entitled to stay in Ireland or the European Union anymore, leave,” she explained. 

“But four in five of those people don't; they either abscond or they go into the invisible community where they live and work in the black economy.

“Either way, it's the part of the process that have people has undermined trust in the last number of years. 

“So, what we need to do is to have a coordinated approach as to how we deal with those people who are refusing to leave on their own.”

The Dublin MEP added that EU wide changes to migration law mean that Ireland and other member states now have a “uniform set of rules” to remove people. 

“I think the main point about restoring the trust and the confidence in our immigration system is making sure that we have a fair, firm and compassionate system,” she said. 

“And that when we have rules, we actually adhere to them. 

“It makes no sense whatsoever if at the very end of a lengthy process, you've been determined that you don't have a legal right to stay within the EU for us to say, ‘Oh, well, you know what? That rule doesn't really apply. Sure, we'll allow you to stay for a couple of more years.’”

Flags of the European Union and its member states fly in the wind in front of the building of the European Parliament. Picture by: Philipp von Ditfurth/DPA/PA Images

Also on the programme, Labour MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said he was shocked that the Return Regulation had been passed with the support of part-right parties in the European Parliament. 

“My frustration is that this is another example of Fine Gael’s group in the European Parliament making deals and cutting deals with the far-right - which they never did in the past,” he said. 

“Whereas we used to have progressive centre, centrist politics between the centre-left and the centre-right, to come up with pathways which were compassionate, understanding and rooted in international law, what you now have is Fine Gael’s group cutting deals with a ragtag bunch of fascists and racists.” 

Mr Ó Ríordáin added that Fine Gael’s determination to speed up deportations in the EU “flies completely in the face” of their support for Irish people living illegally in the United States.  

Instead, he urged the Government to show more leniency to migrants who want to make Ireland their home. 

“You find mechanisms if this person is living a life which is reasonable,” he suggested. 

“You find mechanisms with the centre-right and the centre-left to do what Fine Gael are trying to do with the Irish in America; if somebody has demonstrated a life which is fruitful, has family,etc, that you find pathways for regularisation.” 

In 2022, then Justice Minister Helen McEntee announced an amnesty for those who had overstayed their visas.

Main image: Simon Harris and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Picture by: Alamy.com.