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

Britain has moved from being a safe third country because of its Rwanda policy. The Irish courts found that they could not ensure that people who were returned to Britain would be safe from harm. I accept that the policy of redesignating Britain as a safe third country is because we think Keir Starmer is a lot friendlier than Nigel Farage or whoever may be coming next, but that is the problem with legislating for the moment. Within a short space of time, we could have a scenario whereby Nigel Farage is the Prime Minister in Britain and the Rwanda policy may be on the table again, resulting in an increased level of volatility. That is why this does not make sense. We are legislating for the moment on the assumption that everything will be as it is when we know that is not the case.

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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