International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-18
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Ruairí Ó Murchú (SF), Louth

This is the whole problem with what is being dealt with here. The only reason we are operating on this timeline is the EU migration and asylum pact and the deadlines that have been set for us. We have all stated one of the major issues is the common travel area. Unfortunately, partition continues to cause problems no matter what the issue is. This common travel area is not taken into account. There is no detail on how the relationship with Britain regarding safe returns is going to evolve. The Government is going to look at it afterwards but that just is not good enough and nobody from the Opposition could sign off on that. I would have expected a greater level of due diligence from Government but this is no shock. On some level this is being presented as the Government getting its act together, which it has failed to do over many years in relation to processing and the absolute disaster - and we will deal with amendments specifically related to this late - where those in communities lost resources.
For those who were out to make a profit in a private capacity, though, it was left to the market and they made a fortune. These issues should have been dealt with long before now. To present this as some sort of solution is a farce. It is not good enough for the Minister of State to say that the Government will look at this afterwards.

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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