International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage Dail Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Gary Gannon (SD), Dublin Central If the last hour has proven anything to me, it is that in many ways the Minister has got his way with bringing Committee Stage to the floor of the Dáil. There are 270 amendments and we will not get close to any of them. There will be no scrutiny of the Minister's family reunification changes that are horrendously cruel. There will be no scrutiny of the Minister's places of detention health screening. We may as well throw the amendment book out the window. Next week, we in the Social Democrats will pick a particular motion early on, we will all come in and we will give a big speech on each of them because Committee Stage has gone out the window now. The Minister is the cause of that. The Minister has purposely set out to avoid scrutiny and he has achieved that end. I have to speak to the amendment that Deputy Carthy brought forward an hour ago. If I were to do a full impact assessment of the centre that opened up in East Wall two and a half years ago, that impact assessment would look very different now from what it looked like two and a half years ago. If I were to have done it two and a half years ago, I never would have been able to factor in the benefit of a young man like Asem, who lived in that centre that is entirely unsuitable, playing in goal for the local football team, getting player of the year and working with local construction workers. I would never have been able to factor in the communities that helped build the Mud Island and Ballybough community garden. I would never have been able to factor in those who are part and parcel of the community now. It would have talked about consultation and about protest, but I never would have got to talk about the lighting of the Christmas tree in December last, where people who were potentially outside at one time are certainly inside with a cup of tea in their hand and making friends with people who are part of their community now. That is why I am hesitant when I think about community impacts because I do not think you get a full impact. It does not absolve the Department or the Minister's predecessor of the shambles he made of building a system suitable for purpose, and there was a way. The Catherine Day report demonstrated that there would be talked-of reception centres. That was updated to meet the increasing demand after Covid when we had a larger increase of people coming here seeking international protection. In this whole conversation, we have heard no talk of the Catherine Day report on State-run reception centres, with the exception of Deputy Mac Lochlainn, who referenced them. I hope the proposer might clarify this, but I am conscious that I do not want to see a preposition that the privatised model will be the one that goes forward. The privatised model has absolutely failed us but, within that, we also have to accept there will always be people who come here in search of sanctuary. People will always need to be housed with dignity, care and compassion. Before I decide on how I am going to vote on this amendment, could the Minister tell me if the Catherine Day report is still Government policy? Where are our State reception centres? Each of us who call for State reception centres should be able to provide for ones that may exist in our own communities. They should not just say they might exist elsewhere. If the Minister would like, I am happy to give some suggestions on where they would fit in, because we have an obligation and that is never going to go away. Migration is always going to happen in different trends, be that through climate migration or people fleeing from wars that may take place in future. However, we have responsibilities here. We all have a responsibility as parliamentarians to stand true to our values when these things come to pass. --- 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