International Protection Bill 2026: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-03
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Maria McCormack (SF), Labour Panel

The Minister of State, in his statement, asked what we would do better and what ideas there are for a better, more cohesive, more efficient system. If we thought signing up to this EU pact would make our migration system better, we could examine it properly. The reasons we are opposing it are clear.
I was listening to the Minister for justice, Deputy O'Callaghan, on the RTÉ news last night. He was talking about applications for asylum in Ireland. Ninety per cent of the applicants in January came from the North of Ireland. How would signing up to the EU pact actually fix that? If we were more focused on uniting our island and dealing with the issues we have in this regard, it might assist. The fact that we are debating a Bill to impose the EU migration and asylum pact on Ireland, a pact we did not have to opt into in the first place, is very frustrating. It is frustrating because we know Ireland is unique. We are an EU member state but at the same time we are part of a common travel area with a state outside the EU. The Government has signed up to a pact that future Governments cannot opt out of. I just do not understand why we would hand over more power to the EU and limit our ability to manage our own policies on migration. We are a unique island. I am disappointed that this Government has chosen to ignore a unanimously agreed cross-party recommendation from the Oireachtas justice committee to reconsider opting out of the majority of the provisions in this pact.
I want to address the issue of international protection. We all agree in this House that the international protection policy is a mess. Decisions are taking too long, as are appeals, and deportations are not being enforced. The locating of IPAS accommodation has so far been driven by private interests, who are profiteering massively from a chaotic, badly managed system. The Minister of State asked what we would do differently. There would not be profiteering from IPAS. Migration policy should be driven with the best interests of everybody in mind. We must manage the system to account for the need for workers and skills shortages in key sectors, such as healthcare. We must also have a humanitarian response to those fleeing war and persecution. We must also be mindful of the housing crisis and the lack of capacity in our healthcare and public services.
I will say it clearly: the housing crisis and lack of capacity are the result of long-standing neglect by previous Governments of our public services. Unfortunately, in the world we live in now, there are those who seek to use those issues to suit their own narrative and sow division in society. That is why it is so important to engage with communities and have proper consultation. Had we had proper consultation in all of these places in the first place, we would not have had the mixed messaging and the problems in our communities that we had. We must be sure that the needs of communities and the welfare of IPAS residents are to the fore of decision-making, not the profiteering business interests of property owners. There should be an assessment of the availability of services such as those associated with GPs, school places and access to transport. This is where the problems happen. We will propose amendments on these issues, as we did in the Dáil. I hope the Minister will be sincere about considering them.

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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