A proposal that will mean refugees wait three years before their spouse and children can move to Ireland is designed to distract from the Government’s many failures on immigration, the Social Democrats have argued. 

This week at Cabinet, Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan will brief ministerial colleagues on the International Protection Bill.

The Fianna Fáil TD has promised the legislation will create a “firmer migration system”, which he argued would protect the “integrity of our immigration framework”. 

On The Pat Kenny Show, Social Democrats spokesperson on migration Gary Gannon said the Oireachtas Justice Committee had yet to see any clause in the bill that would change the rights of refugees to bring in family members into Ireland. 

 “Family refugee reunification accounts for less than 1% of our total inward migration in this country,” he said. 

“Last year, it was just under 600, the year before that was under 900. 

“And this is what the headline of the paper will be today, because this is what Jim O'Callaghan and the Department want you to believe is happening, because it creates the impression that we're being tough on immigration. 

“When actually we're doing, we're just failing miserably.”

The International Protection Office on Mount Street. Picture by: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

The Dublin Central TD continued that the last time the Oireachtas Committee on Justice saw the bill it was “nowhere near finished” and accused Minister O’Callaghan of overseeing an “absolute shambles” in the Department of Justice. 

He added that it is already “quite tough” for asylum seekers to be awarded refugee status in Ireland. 

“People have waited for years in the system - which is an unfairness in itself, ” he said. 

“It's so unfair, like it's grotesquely unfair.” 

Asylum seekers queueing outside the IPAS Centre on Mount Street in Dublin. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.

Deputy Gannon said the system urgently needs reform but not in the way the Government has proposed. 

“They're pointing at the queue rather than trying to fix the system that's creating it,” he argued. 

“I mean, I don't doubt for a second that people need to be treated more efficiently, fairly. 

“But they're presiding over a system that doesn't have the appropriate level of staffing, that doesn't have the appropriate level of facilities.”

If enacted by the Oireachtas, the International Protection Bill will give effect to the EU Asylum and Migration Pact, which aims to streamline the asylum process across the bloc. 

Main image: A boy at an airport. Picture by: Alamy.com.