International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-18
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Gary Gannon (SD), Dublin Central

I asked the Minister about how absconding was defined and if absconding comes into play if a person travels from the Republic up to the North. He then gave greater clarification. Here is my problem. He has absolutely no lawful way of policing that. There are no measurements. We discussed this on the previous amendment. We absolutely do not want any form of border infrastructure between the North and the Republic. That is where I find this really difficult. The Minister is asking us to vote through something that we cannot measure and certainly does not exist.
There is no way of policing it that does not require some form of racial profiling. I know we have had issues in relation to that in the past. How is it measured? How is it policed? How will the Government measure abscondment?

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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