International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-18
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

I frequently get invitations, which I welcome, from the Deputy's justice committee. I turn up and I answer a series of questions on international protection accommodation, international protection processing times or the International Protection Office. I have done it before and I have no difficulty doing it again. What we cannot do is turn the Committee Stage of this important legislation into a procedure that is the same as happens in the justice committee when I appear to answer general questions. I can, however, give confirmation to the Deputy that the country and the Department will be ready to process the new system proposed under this legislation If the Deputy wants to look at what is being done and the improvements have been made, he should look no further than the International Protection Office, which last year processed over 20,000 applications, which was an extraordinary achievement. We need to speed up the appeals process as well. The Deputy will be aware there is a new second instance body being established under this. I agree with Deputy Gannon that we need to put in some procedure for what we are dealing with here. It seems to be that we are talking about section 1. We have not moved amendments Nos. 2 to 4, inclusive, in that grouping. I would have thought before we have a vote on section 1, we would have to deal with those three amendments.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-18