International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage Dail Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Matt Carthy (SF), Cavan-Monaghan No, I know. I am surprised it is not because there are other proposals for definitions. The Minister would have read the pre-legislative scrutiny report by the committee and throughout that process, it was repeatedly flagged that the term "legal counselling" appears several times in the legislation but there is insufficient definition. Many of those who gave expert testimony to the committee raised the fear of risks of creating uncertainty as to what level of legal assistance international protection applicants would actually receive. In this amendment, we purposely tried to provide a clearly understood definition of what "legal counselling" would mean. It means any "oral or written legal advice from a practising solicitor or barrister, or a person employed by the Legal Aid Board who is authorised to provide legal advice or representation". The reason the definition was sought and why so many raised it is because, as it stands, there is an assurance that people seeking international protection would be entitled to legal counselling. However, members of the legal profession have said they do not know what that means. "Legal counselling" could mean that somebody goes on ChatGPT, it could mean that they are talking to a call centre or it could mean that they are handed a leaflet that pertains to legal counselling. For the purpose of this process, it is crucially important because we want to have a robust system of international protection that works. We also want to ensure the State lives up to its responsibilities under international law. That means that if somebody comes into this State seeking international protection, they must get a fair hearing. In order to get a fair hearing within the very narrow timeframe that the Bill sets - I think most people support that timeframe - they need to have access in some cases to legal advice or support. In my view, it is imperative that there is a definition. If the Minister is not supporting this amendment, I would like clarification on whether he plans to bring forward a further amendment in terms of providing a definition. If the Minister is not supporting this amendment, it would be crucially important that he sets out to the House what part of the amendment he is not supporting because, as I have said, this amendment is technical in nature. It seeks to set a definition for "legal counselling" that will appear in the Bill. Without it, the Bill is deficient. Therefore, it would be left up to some legal professional, probably a judge, to make a determination on what precisely "legal counselling" is. I suggest it is the role of this House to set that definition in place. --- 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