International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-18
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Alan Kelly (LAB), Tipperary North

Have we finally found a use for Grok? This is where we are going with this - seriously. As I look around the room, the Minister is probably the most qualified legal person in here, I would suspect. How did we get to this point on Committee Stage, after pre-legislative scrutiny and Second Stage, where we have not defined this? I am looking forward to seeing why my amendment was ruled out of order, but I basically just ripped it from the asylum procedure regulation, which the Minister has mentioned. It was a copy and paste; there is no big science to it. If the Minister is not going to come back with that, on how it is going to be implemented, then I am genuinely flummoxed about where he is going to go with this. My colleague has spoken about legal regression, and we cannot have that, but how are we going to define who can give such advice within this State? Can I, as a TD? Will it be civil society through citizens information? Is this where we are going or, as Deputy Gannon has said, is it to be the Groks of this world?
How do we define it? Under the asylum procedure Regulation 2024/1348 providers and counselling can be provided by accredited civil society organisations, specialised legal advisers or government authorities provided they meet national qualification standards. We cannot even get proper accreditation in this country for translation services. We do not have it and I think it is actually going to cause a lot of legal issues in cases in the years to come. How are we going to ensure that the standard stated in the regulations is met?
Will the Minister please outline to us three things? First, where will he bring forward this amendment, why is it not in the Dáil phase and why has it gone on for so long? Second, is he going to use the wording I pulled from the regulation I just quoted? Third, as part of that, how is he going to define the organisations or, dare I say it, the technologies that can actually give such legal counselling?

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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