International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage Dail Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Matt Carthy (SF), Cavan-Monaghan The Ceann Comhairle mentioned the rationale for amendment No. 11 being ruled out of order. It would be appropriate if the Minister of State could give an indication as to how exactly these Houses are to have any faith whatsoever that Tusla will be in a position to carry out the obligations that are placed on it as a result of the measures in the Bill. I take it from the Ceann Comhairle's guidance that the part of the amendment that precluded it from being taken is subsection (3) which indicates that the Act cannot commence until the report that is sought in the earlier subsections is furnished. In that regard, I will try to have a better-worded amendment on Report Stage. Seriously, how can the Minister of State enact this, which will place additional issues and pressures on Tusla, without ensuring that it has the staffing, the resources and the operational capacity to meet what is expected to be very expanded statutory duties that will involve unaccompanied minors, issues around delays, inconsistent care and the system strain? The pre-legislative scrutiny process, when we were dealing with the general scheme, heard from numerous witnesses at the committee that there are very serious concerns around the ability of Tusla to do the jobs it already has never mind the work that we have here. The legislation that is being brought forward now requires Tusla to take on greater responsibilities for assessing, for supporting and accommodating unaccompanied minors, for co-ordinating child protection interventions and for ensuring welfare safeguards during any procedures involving children. In practice, that will mean Tusla's workload for reception, oversight, care and planning for vulnerable young applicants is going to be expanded. The burden of responsibility on Tusla is going to be much greater. If we look at the here and now, Tusla is under-resourced and overstretched as it is. It is unable to meet its statutory duties for vulnerable children, including unaccompanied minors in the international protection system. The general scheme debate at pre-legislative scrutiny stage dealt comprehensively with the number of young people going missing from Tusla care, the majority of them having been unaccompanied minors in the international protection system. The number is astounding, but what is more astounding is the lack of public focus on the issue. Unless we have major investment and staffing increases and shake up Tusla, we cannot have any confidence whatsoever. That is why we have brought forward amendment No. 11, which would have called on the Minister prior to the commencement of the Act to lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a report on the capacity of the Child and Family Agency to discharge its statutory function. That report would include an assessment of the staffing levels, the operational capacity, the organisational structures of the Child and Family Agency insofar as they related to the performance of its functions under the Act, an assessment of the financial and other resources available to the agency for the purpose of fulfilling those functions, and confirmation that the agency was in a position to comply with its statutory obligations under the Act upon its commencement. The amendment is not there, but can the Minister of State give an assurance that Tusla is going to have the capacity to deal with the additional responsibilities the Government is forcing through in this rushed legislation? Can he give an assurance that for the issue of care of unaccompanied minors, the structures and resources will be in place, that we will not have children in the international protection system who are in accommodation provided by private, for-profit operators with sometimes very dubious track records, and that we will have the personnel and staff in place within Tusla to provide care? If the Minister of State can give that assurance, most Members of the House will be quite surprised. The experience with Tusla in terms of every other care it has responsibility for is that it is not in a position to do that across the board. I do not know how, therefore, we can in any way be confident that passing legislation that increases the administrative workload and operational responsibilities on Tusla is going to happen. Before we adopt section 3, we need to have assurances that that is in place. Otherwise, I do not know how we can adopt section 3, which allows for the Minister by regulations to provide for any matter referred to in this Bill and outlines the different regulations that may be made under this Bill. We are going to be entrusting Tusla, an organisation that does not have the best track record in caring for children, with more responsibilities. It has told us, or at least the evidence before the committee suggests, that there are serious questions as to the ability of that organisation. Of course, the whole issue of international protection and Tusla in the public mind has been mixed up with the absolutely terrible story of a young girl going missing who was subsequently allegedly attacked at the Citywest centre, and how Tusla dealt with the situation. That was a young girl who went missing, a 12-year-old girl. Nobody knew about it, and then Tusla issued what was, quite frankly, a victim-blaming statement that talked about a 12-year-old child's behavioural issues. This is the organisation we are giving more responsibility to. I really hope the Minister of State can give us some assurance that the principles of amendment No. 11, notwithstanding the fact it has been ruled out of order at this stage, will actually be adhered to, and that he will ensure that he as Minister of State and the senior Minister and the Department are absolutely confident that Tusla can do what is asked of it before we enshrine in law its capacity to do all that. --- 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