Taoiseach believes legislation will be needed to be able to return asylum seekers to UK
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Legislation will be needed to return asylum seekers back to the UK, the Taoiseach has said, as he accused Sinn Féin of "right-wing Tory rhetoric" on immigration.
The Government has faced questions on the issue of immigration this week after Justice Minister Helen McEntee suggested that more than 80% of those seeking asylum in Ireland were coming across the border with the North, rather than arriving at ports and airports.
Relatively few of those are returned, with Ms McEntee set to meet the British Home Secretary about the issue next week.
At Government Buildings, Simon Harris said the issue must be broader than just which buildings are used to house asylum seekers. He defended Ms McEntee as having "done a lot" on immigration issues, which he described as an "extraordinarily demanding situation".
"The conversation about migration can no longer just be a conversation about accommodation supply. Accommodation supply is an issue that is an outworking of our immigration policy.
"It also has to be one about borders, about the rules, about the borders of the European Union and about how there’s faster processing times. I think Minister McEntee has done a lot in this space."
He said that a legal mechanism may be needed to "fix" the situation at the border and that this may need new legislation.
"If you've been in the UK, and you've had status, why are you coming to Ireland, looking for immigration status?
"There needs to be a legal mechanism in place and I believe this will require primary legislation to be able to return people to the UK.
"It's not about a situation where you can be living safely in another country, have status potentially in that country, and then come to our country and seek immigration status. That's the piece we have to fix."
Mr Harris said that a Sinn Féin social media video which mentioned an opposition to "open borders" was "Tory rhetoric".
"I must say some of the comments that I've heard in the last couple of hours from some opposition politicians are very worrying and very peculiar, and I think should cause concern.
"I would have expected better quite frankly...What we don't need is right-wing Tory rhetoric. What we do need is effective solutions."