I thank my colleague, Senator Ward, for his comments and support. He has summed up my view that we can only gain from participation in this. We are a small country at the heart of Europe but on the geographic periphery. We can only benefit from an exchange of information and fundamentally that is at the heart of what this agency intends to do, namely, share information, best practice and expertise.
I thank Deputy Kenny for his constructive engagement and recognition of the benefit of this to Ireland. He asks legitimate questions. I have not read the book but I will. The issue of assistance is something I certainly do not rule out our doing. I do not mean this in a flippant way but we obviously cannot seek assistance until we have opted in, so that at least becoming an option shows the benefit of opting in. According to my note, there are ten member states that currently have operation plans in place. They are Romania, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Austria, Belgium, Lithuania, Spain and the Netherlands. The support can very in terms of a country-specific scenario, but it is clear it does not matter what member state you live in, as while some are under more pressure than others the overall scenario in relation to the EU and migration is significant at the moment. Last year, 330,000 irregular entries, as they are described at a European level, were detected at EU external borders. That was the highest number since 2016. It is a 64% increase on the previous year. The western Balkans route is 136%, the eastern Mediterranean route is up 108% and the central Mediterranean route is up 51%. These are the most active routes. This has put pressure on front-line member states at the external borders of the EU.
I want to be associated with Deputy Kenny's comments, because it is important when we talk about these things that we are associated with such comments. People have every entitlement to come and seek protection in the EU and protection in any member state of the EU. I am very proud of the approach we take and Europe takes versus the approach others take to migration. We have a rules-based system. It is robust. We all need to work to make it more efficient and we are doing so, but fundamentally we believe in helping people in need and that is an important characteristic of our nation and of the EU. I might get the Deputy a note on one of the points he made because I do not have the materials to hand, although I have some of it my head as I heard from the Commissioner on this recently at my last meeting in Brussels. Embedding human rights and respect for human rights and law and international law and decency and dignity in any return agreements the EU is involved in and is funding is a core component of the work we are doing. Can we and should we do better as a Union? The answer is "Yes", but it might be useful if I can get the committee a note on this, because it is an important point. More and more, return agreements are going to be a part of the European response. It is a question of how to safely and legally return people who do not have a right to be in the EU and how to do it in a way that is absolutely compliant with and upholds their human rights.
It is something the Commission is working on and has a number of return agreements in place. I would be very happy to share a briefing note on it with Deputy Kenny through the committee.
