International Protection Bill 2026: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-03
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Sharon Keogan (IND), Industrial and Commercial Panel

We gather here today to debate a Bill that the Government claims will deliver stronger migration controls, faster processing and a more robust system. Let me be absolutely clear; I believe in strong controls on migration and in defending the integrity of our borders and our asylum system. That is a matter of sovereignty, fairness and national capacity. However, I oppose this Bill. While that might sound like a contradiction, it is not, because sovereignty without control over law-making is not sovereignty at all. The fundamental issue is this: once we pass this Bill, we are locked into EU law and any future change to Irish migration policy will require EU approval, not Irish approval. This Bill does not just create a new system; it sets a precedent that Irish migration law flows not from Leinster House, not from the Irish people but from Brussels. That is not theoretical. The Government already chose to opt in to the migration pact, even though it had no obligation to do so, and now we are legally bound to implement it in full. We are hard-wiring EU control into the heart of Irish migration policy.
A sovereign nation cannot adapt if its hands are tied. In this day and age, the ability to adapt, especially in the area of asylum systems and in migration more broadly, is vital. For example, for years, the mainstream argument was that countries like Ireland needed low-skilled migration to do the jobs that Irish people do not want to do. Now with automation and the AI revolution, low-skilled migration is being reassessed worldwide and has been seen by many as a liability, not an asset. Migration needs to change as economies change and the world changes, but if we pass this Bill, Ireland will not be free to change.
Because this pact can be changed by a majority among EU states, Germany and the larger bloc, we will be subject to their needs, not ours. If Germany decides next year that it needs lots of low-skilled labour, while we need to restrict inflows, we will bend to Germany. If, in the year after that, Germany decides to ramp up mass deportations, while we desperately need skilled workers, we will bend to it again. That is not sovereignty. That is dependency, and it is being locked into law by this Bill.
The Government opt-in was reckless, thoughtless and utterly devoid of strategic foresight. It walked Ireland into a binding EU framework without a single serious national debate, without explaining the risks and without acknowledging the constraints the Government was accepting on behalf of future governments and generations to come. We are legislating under duress of our own making, and that is political malpractice.
The next big issue with this Bill is that while it would give us power on paper, this does not translate into actual change. In fact, it threatens to overwhelm us. The central issue here is capacity or, more accurately, the total lack of it. This Bill expects the State to handle a volume of border procedure cases that we physically cannot accommodate. Let us state the obvious. Ireland has no proper land border infrastructure for detention or processing. It has none. The common travel area means that the inflow from Northern Ireland continues completely unaddressed. This Bill does absolutely nothing to close the loophole. According to the Garda Commissioner this week, organised crime groups are already trafficking people across that Border. This Bill offers no new tools and no enforcement plan.
The EU expects us to manage higher numbers, but gives us tools to reduce numbers. What will happen? We risk becoming not a sovereign gatekeeper but a processing hub, a holding bay for people we cannot remove, house or process within the timelines the pact imposes. This is not hypothetical. We need only look at what is happening already, because the next issue is that our system is already collapsing and the numbers prove it. The International Protection Appeals Tribunal, the final step in the process, is currently accumulating a backlog of 25 cases net per day. By December 2025, that backlog had hit 18,243 cases, a number so enormous, so unmanageable, that reform on paper becomes meaningless. The system is drowning and this Bill pours more water into the boat.
Let us talk about housing, because asylum and migration policy cannot be separated from the capacity to accommodate both new arrivals and those already here. Ireland built more houses per capita in 2025 than any other EU country, as per the EY EUROCONSTRUCT database, yet the percentage of Irish 30-year-olds still living with their parents has increased more in the past decade than in any other European country. We are building more than anyone else and falling further behind than anyone else. A Bill written in Brussels will not fix any of this. We need time to move towards a better model, in alignment with our national needs and capacities. This Bill pretends the capacities exist; they do not. It pretends our infrastructure and housing systems can absorb more pressure; they cannot. It pretends our appeals system can clear its backlog; it will not. If we are truly serious about thorough and fair international protection, migration, sovereignty and national capacity, we need Irish solutions, not EU-mandated frameworks.
There are steps we can take to truly and fully move forward. We can renegotiate Ireland's approach to opt-ins so that no Government can bind the country without parliamentary oversight. We can tighten Ireland's visa rules, an area fully under national control. We can further strengthen checks at ports and airports and, critically, along the common travel area where more abuse actually occurs. We can negotiate directly with the UK on cross-border management. In the longer term, we could consider aligning with the Danish model, a real opt-out, not the illusory opt-in sovereignty we have today. These are real tools, real policies and real sovereignty. Sovereignty is not a slogan. Control is not a heading in a Bill.
Capacity is not created by passing legislation written to satisfy EU deadlines. Ireland needs a migration system that answers to the Irish people, not to the majority will of other European governments with diverging interests. We need border control - real border control, not paperwork control. We need capacity - real capacity, not imaginary processing centres that do not exist. We need laws that can change when Ireland needs to change them, not when Brussels allows it.
For that reason, for sovereignty, for realism and for honesty, I will be opposing this Bill.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-03/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-03