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

It is very difficult because the Minister sounds very reasonable. He has told us that under only three conditions will a child be detained when it is in their best interests. That is fine, but we do not legislate for the Minister's good intent. There will be another Minister for justice and other Governments. There are people who will go further. We are already going further than we thought would be the case three years ago. We can accept the Minister has good intent, but that is not how legislation works.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said that the immigration detention of a child "is never in the best interest of a child and always a violation of children’s rights". It is difficult to have a parliamentary back and forth in that context. I accept the bona fides of the Minister, but the high commissioner who is responsible for the human rights of the child has said it is "never in the best interest of a child" to be detained for any period of time. We have tabled amendments to remove that provision, but we may not get to them. The Minister is wrong here.

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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