The Minister for Justice has said Ireland will need to be "nimble" and may need to change its own laws and provisions in order to respond to proposed overhaul in UK asylum laws.
It comes as Britain is set to overhaul its approach to human rights laws to make it easier to deport migrants who arrive illegally, in a major shake-up of asylum policy.
Jim O'Callaghan said he expects the proposed changes to UK asylum laws will have an impact on Ireland and that the Government may have to change the law here in response.
The minister was speaking at Farmleigh House following the British Irish-Intergovernmental Conference where he and Tánaiste Simon Harris met British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Hilary Benn and Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Matthew Patrick.
Mr O'Callaghan said "every country has a right to introduce its own migration policy".
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"The British government has every right to bring forward its own proposals, but we would ask and are grateful for close engagement, because we clearly have interdependencies here because of the contract here," he said.
The minister stressed that changes to the UK asylum laws "can have an impact in Ireland" and "have had an impact in the past".
"But that's not to say that the UK can't change their asylum laws. They're perfectly entitled to change their asylum laws, and I thank them again for giving us a heads up in respect of it, however, what it does indicate is that I suppose we need to be nimble in Ireland as we may need to change our laws and our provisions as well to respond to any changes that have taken place in the UK," he said.
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Mr Benn said he did not believe any of the new proposals would put the UK at odds with its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
"The British government is absolutely committed to the European Convention of Human Rights, unlike other parties in Britain who want to take us out of it, and that really would undermine the Good Friday Agreement, which has seen so much progress take place in Northern Ireland," he said.
Mr Benn said there is a debate going on in the Council of Europe about the interpretation and application of various aspects of the ECHR, adding that "there is a great deal of public concern about illegal migration to the United Kingdom".
"This is undoubtedly the case, and that's why it's vital we have a system that everyone can have confidence in, that can distinguish between those who are trying to move for other reasons by claiming asylum, when, in fact, the sovereign system is there for people who are fleeing persecution," Mr Benn said.
