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

In the first instance, a victim of trafficking will be identified by their vulnerability assessment. That is provided for under the special reception conditions. I am surprised the Minister did not know that.
Given the day that we had today in the Dáil when another State apology was made, I cannot help thinking of the words of Christine Buckley. I am sure most of us around the Chamber remember the incredible work of Christine Buckley, who shone a light into one of the darkest corners in this State and finally delivered a State apology for victims of institutional incarceration. Christine had a phrase which she used constantly: " I believe you before you open your mouth". That was Christine's line. We are now standing in the Chamber processing potentially the most important legislation of certainly the next five years and it factors in detention. We are having a discussion about why should we believe a person when they come forward and say they were a victim of trafficking.
We have talked about categories. What category of person does the Minister think would stand in front of another person and falsely say that they had been a victim of trafficking or modern slavery? I do not know that individual. I have not met that individual. I do want the Minister to legislate for that individual. I want to legislate for a humane and compassionate system in which we actually build trust into our legislation. The Minister might say that this is some sort of nonsense on my part, but I know what the opposite looks like, and it does not look like the type of system that is reflective of a republic that has learned the lessons for which it previously apologised for.

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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