Alice-Mary Higgins: Migration, Public Interest, and Rights

That's an example of where public interest, if we had that again, the Minister didn't get a chance to come in on that phrasing, and public policy being used for that, but public interest, it would be in many cases in the public interest for persons who are relying on medication to be able to have that medication until the point where they leave the state, whether or not they're entitled to it, it's not a privilege, but in cases as a sense of the public interest, it is in the interest of the public, indeed in our health systems, and those who may be affected if persons who need medication have it while they're in the state again, so I would say there's an argument there, and again that would be if we were applying public interest frame versus a public policy frame. Minister, we will see how it unfolds, I think the way that it is worded gives some ambiguity, but I accept your message that you believe it is only to be applied in the cases of those who are applicants, but the question of course is some of how it is worded, where it is to confirm identity, it is to confirm nationality, is it also to confirm if you're an applicant, because there's deemed to be an applicant is one of the phrases that is used in there in that context, and it's in the context, Minister, where we are seeing some extraordinary shifts and things that we saw were basic powers, for example, powers under which we're not going to come to, but immigration officers and Gardaí being given the powers to enter homes and premises without warrants, I've been in three allotments terms, and any time the idea of entering a building or a dwelling without a warrant came up, it became one of these kind of absolute constitutional issues, and yet we're seeing very wide powers to allow people to enter premises without, if they suspect, with reason because there may be a person with a deportation, it's just like the idea of penalising, the idea of are people going to be accused of sheltering persons in their attics or in their garages, it's kind of a, as I say, the kind of thing whereby, and I'm saying this because any time I've seen the idea of entering buildings without warrants coming up previously, it has been something which has been subject to a very deep debate, and it's an example of a significant provision that will get almost no debate. Minister, you have said the migration issue is kind of one of the defining issues since going to the 21st century. I mean, international displacement is the fact that we are seeing and will see war accelerating and military active and more conflict than ever before, the fact that we are having far larger areas of the world becoming unlivable, literally physically uninhabitable due to the action and the acceleration of climate, but the crisis is in conflict and the failure to take meaningful action in respect of conflict, in fact, but the crisis is in conflict and the failure to take meaningful action in respect of conflict, in fact, the leaning into it with a rush towards a new arms race that everybody wants in on, and the failure to deliver on climate because it's dropped to the bottom of the political agenda, and yet the natural outcome, if you make the world unlivable and if you lean into conflict and if you allow military and actions and illegal occupations and a sense that might as right can rule again, the consequence is going to be displacement, and yet that consequence is what's been framed as a crisis. It is a moment, but it is a moment at the beginning of the 21st century, Minister. When the crisis is not, it is a crisis of conscience. It is going to be did we learn the lessons from the 20th century when we moved away from colonialism, and when we moved away and we put in place human rights instruments, learning about the idea of all human rights, are we going to forget what we learned to the 20th century, fail to address the actual challenges of the 21st century, which are the climate crisis, which are conflict, and which are the undermining of international law, and are we going to instead try and suggest this group, this small group, is it one million in total in Europe, that they're the problem? The crisis is that some of those impacted have reached our shores in Europe, and that that gets framed as a crisis. It is not crisis, and it's a crisis of conscience that we need to be stepping up to.