International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-18
============================================================

Gary Gannon (SD), Dublin Central

To build on the question I asked before the Minister of State made his contribution, the crux of the matter for me in supporting amendment No. 4 is that if we are to believe the figures - we have heard numerous different figures but let us settle on 84% of people who claim asylum in Ireland come through the common travel area - to be true, we effectively have a piece of legislation that is massive in its scope and intent but does not provide for 84% of people who come to Ireland. That is particularly scary for me because this legislation deals not only with the detention of people and the suspension of liberty, it also has the detention of children built in. If 84% of people who claim asylum are coming through the common travel area and it cannot be established where they may be returned to, I worry about what happens to people who are being detained. We have a horrific history of incarceration in this country and that really does concern me. It has not been addressed. That is why I will be supporting amendment No.4. Does the Minister of State have any clarification in that regard? Effectively, it seems like we have an international protection Bill with a big hole in it.

---

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