International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-18
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Paul Murphy (PBP), Dublin South-West

The Minister's response is quite revealing. We are saying this is a Bill for the detention of children. He is saying not to worry, he will recognise the rights of children and there is nothing to be worried about. Then we have amendments before us that propose the best interests of the child should be a primary consideration in the carrying out of this procedure in terms of asylum, and we have amendments that propose this Part will be interpreted in line with the guarantees for minors set out in Article 23, but the Minister is here to tell us he cannot accept them. The most substantive reason he gave for not being able to accept them is that he says the provision is already there. The Minister knows it is not already there because he has just read it out. It is there in a different Part.
He asserted two reasons he cannot do it. One is because it is already a legal obligation so what is the point in doing it and the other is that it is already there in a different Part. He read it out himself. It is in the Part relating to Eurodac and screening. The Bill states explicitly that the best interests of the child should be a primary consideration in the carrying out of the procedures under that Part. We are asking him to state it in relation to the asylum process and he is not going to accept it.

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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