The migration issue prevailed in a debate between eight Irish candidates ahead of the June 7 European Parliament elections, RTE reported.
Katie Hannon stated at the start of the debate that the issue of immigration needed a “reset.” The Garda National Immigration Bureau near the border employed only two people, she emphasised.
Sinn Féin MEP Chris McManus then answered a question about asylum seekers crossing the border into Northern Ireland. McManus indicated that his party would speak to the British government on the migration issue.
We don’t want to see any border on the island of Ireland.
Fine Gael MEP Maria Walsh accused the Sinn Féin party of speaking out of “both sides of its mouth” on borders. Walsh claimed that the current system of immigration to Europe was not suitable.
Independent candidate Saoirse McHugh called the migration system “atrocious,” adding that 35,000 people had died in the Mediterranean in the last ten years.
Meanwhile, independent MEP Luke Ming Flanagan touched on the subject of European arms supplies to armed conflicts. He emphasised that the EU should stop selling weapons to war zones.
Aontú TD Peadar Tóibín criticised the EU Solidarity Pact system, saying Ireland would be “told” how many people it would have to accept. He also emphasised that “self-determination is really important.”
Another independent candidate, Peter Casey, expressed fears that a Belfast court ruling that much of Britain’s Rwanda law should not apply to Northern Ireland, as it could lead to an increase in asylum seekers.
Green Party Senator Pauline O’Reilly stated that “people have a right to asylum.” O’Reilly noted her party’s concern that the EU migration agreement did not go far enough.
Besides migration, the debate also touched on agriculture, defence, and the war in Ukraine.
