International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-18
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Matt Carthy (SF), Cavan-Monaghan

This is again dealing with the concept of a safe third country. I want to go back to the situation with Britain as a result of the amendment of the 2015 Act. As the Minister of State will know, following Brexit, Ireland could no longer use the EU Dublin III regulation to return international protection applicants to Britain, but for a while Britain remained a de facto safe third country because of the 2015 Act and the regulations still listed in it. Then in 2022 the Government formally stopped treating Britain as a safe third country due, I think, to the advice of the Attorney General. That effectively ended Britain's practical status as a safe third country for Ireland even though the original designation was made in 2015. Considering the lengthy discussion we had about the common travel area and the senior Minister's charge in respect of all the good work that is being done in terms of the collaboration with the British Government, will the Minister of State clarify that after this Bill passes unless Britain is designated rapidly as a safe third country, there will be questions about how applicants can be returned to Britain? This is an important point and I raise it because the public would welcome clarification on it, but also because it may require further amendment to clarify the onus on us. As the Minister of State said, and as I have mentioned a number of times, the assertions from Government are that over four in five applicants in our IPAS system are coming via the common travel area, so this is not a moot point. It is a critical point for our ability to have a functional IPAS system that works for everyone involved.

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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