Ireland may not be able to carry out “robust” identity checks or “adequately conduct screening” of asylum seekers due to the State’s limited access to a key European security database, a government report says.
The lack of access to three Europe-wide large-scale IT systems, which make up the European Union’s interoperability framework, means the State might struggle to complete immigration security screenings and receive and share data with other member states, the Government’s implantation plan for the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum says.
The pact, which Ireland has adopted, is due to come into effect in June next year. It is a standardised immigration control system across the 27 EU member states which aims to tackle “key inefficiencies” and deal with issues around secondary movement among migrants.
The interoperability IT security system allows for co-operation on border and visa issues, policing and judicial matters, and asylum and migration cases across the Schengen area, which is a region of Europe without border checks between countries. Ireland is not a member of Schengen.
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The Irish implementation plan warns that the State “may not be able to carry out” the most robust identity validation in line with the pact’s requirements because Ireland does not have access to the EU’s Entry/Exit System, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System or the EU Visa Information System.
The entry/exit system, due to launch in October, is an automated IT system for registering travellers from non-EU countries travelling in Schengen area countries.
Ireland is not a part of the Schengen area, but holds a common travel area arrangement with the United Kingdom.
However, concerns have been raised regarding travel between the two jurisdictions since the British government introduced a new digital immigration system in April.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said the State had opted into Eurodac, the EU’s fingerprint database for asylum seekers, which will be upgraded by June next year, and said it had also opted into parts of the Schengen Information System (SIS) regulation, which allows for checks for European Arrest Warrants.
Eurodac will store applicants’ official documents, photographs and first place of application to help decrease secondary movement by applicants.
It will also include information on children aged six and above “to enhance protections for children and combat child-trafficking”, she said.
The State is also engaging with EU-Lisa, the body that manages several large-scale IT justice systems, to work on “interoperability” and how to better detect illegal migrants, those travelling using multiple identities and to improve border controls.
The department said that while Ireland cannot opt in to the Schengen IT systems, the State intended to legislate nationally to align with its provisions.
It also said that under the pact the State intended to screen all people claiming asylum within seven days and carry out health, vulnerability, security and criminal checks before gathering biometric data for registration in the Eurodac database.
But former Defence Forces director of military intelligence Michael Murphy criticised the Government on Sunday for failing to address Ireland’s Common Travel Area arrangement with the UK or movement of people across the Northern Irish border as part of plans for changes under the EU migration pact.
This “great weakness” must be addressed, he told RTÉ radio. He also warned that the State’s asylum system remained “wide open for abuse”.
“The lack of border control is a security threat to the State and it needs to be fixed,” Mr Murphy said.
