David Davin-Power: Bad as it may be, the UK has an asylum policy while we have none

Justice Minister Helen McEntee. Photo: Gareth Chaney

David Davin-Power

What was she thinking? Justice Minister Helen McEntee is no fool, and when she startled the Oireachtas Justice Committee by blurting out that 80pc of asylum-seekers enter the Republic from the North, she would have felt the ground shifting under her feet.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin did his best to deflect the incoming flak, but it was too much of a gift for Rishi Sunak and his ministers to ignore.