International Protection Dail Éireann — 2025-12-04 ============================================================ Emer Higgins (FG), Dublin Mid-West I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O’Callaghan. I thank Deputy Geoghegan for raising this important matter and providing the opportunity to give clarity. I hope the Deputy gets that clarity from the comments that the Minister has asked me to make on his behalf. I am aware that this matter has been discussed by the Committee of Public Accounts and that the Department has responded in writing to a range of queries from the PAC. First, I would like to set out the legislative position regarding age verification. The International Protection Office, IPO, is responsible for determining the age of an applicant, and the Child and Family Agency - Tusla is responsible for determining if an individual is entitled to access its services, including the provision of accommodation. These issues are addressed under the International Protection Act 2015 and the Child Care Act 1991, respectively. The International Protection Act states that where it appears to an immigration officer or an international protection officer that a person seeking international protection is under 18 and has not been accompanied by an adult, the child should be referred to Tusla. At that point, in accordance with the International Protection Act, it is assumed that the person is a minor and that the Child Care Acts and the Child and Family Agency Act 2013 apply. The International Protection Act states that Tusla is responsible for making an application for international protection on behalf of the child. It also makes provision for the IPO to arrange an assessment to determine an applicant’s age, but this cannot happen without the consent of the person, or Tusla acting on the person’s behalf. Independent of this process, Tusla carries out an assessment to determine the eligibility of the person, who has been assumed to be a minor, to access its services. In practice, and for many years, it is this latter assessment that is taken as being determinative of age for the purposes of both eligibility for services and for the processing of an international protection application. In cases where Tusla decides that the person is not eligible because they are judged to be an adult, the applicant is referred back to the IPO, which will process their application as such. While this has been the long-standing practical process around age verification, there is an acknowledgement that it needs to be adapted. The Minister, Deputy O’Callaghan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, intend to use the forthcoming International Protection Bill to amend the statutory mechanisms for age determination. The measures under the EU Migration and Asylum Pact set out safeguards and procedural guarantees for unaccompanied minors in the international protection process and will be given effect in the International Protection Bill. The Bill will also provide for appropriate alignment with the screening regulation. As required by the pact measures, the Bill will make provision for the appointment of representatives to assist and safeguard the interests of unaccompanied minors. Additionally, the International Protection Bill 2026 will propose that the determining authority - the replacement for the IPO - will arrange and be responsible for age assessments. It will set out in far greater detail how age is assessed and provide for regulations governing the standards for that process and the qualifications needed for staff. I hope that clarifies the matter. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-04/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:25+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-04