International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-25
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Gary Gannon (SD), Dublin Central

I move amendment No. 21:
In page 32, to delete lines 14 to 18.
In the first instance, I will speak about amendment No. 21. Let me quote the subsection of the Bill I am seeking to remove so we will have a sense of it. It provides:
Where a member of An Garda Síochána, an immigration officer or an officer of the Minister has reasonable grounds for believing that it is in the interests of public policy or national security for an applicant to whom paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (4) applies to be subject to the obligation referred to in subsection (1) , the member or officer may give the applicant a direction referred to in subsection (2) .
The direction refers to detaining and screening.
Striking out the subsection would mean officers cannot direct people with lawful residency permission to attend screening centres on the basis of vague, undefined grounds. It also cuts off the path to grounds for arrest and detention. By definition, the people in question are not international protection applicants and as such, the State has no business arresting and detaining them under this legislation. It looks like illegitimate arrest and detention on the grounds of racial profiling.
I am very cautious about how we legislate for detention in this country. It will be the defining part of this Bill. We are steamrolling through something that has monumental consequences and, while not looking to the future, we do not seem to be particularly reflective about our past. I think about the apology the Taoiseach made today in the Chamber and other apologies that have been made. We have a gruesome history of institutional incarceration in this country. I am really apprehensive about how this Bill will legislate not only for continuation but also for enhancement. We are legislating, in the subsection I am seeking to strike out, for the detention of people who have committed no crime at all. Our history demands that we tread more cautiously than we are at this point, which is why I am seeking to strike out the subsection.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-25