International Protection Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-03 ============================================================ Malcolm Noonan (GP), Agricultural Panel Níl aon dabht ach go bhfuil athchoiriú ag teastáil sa chóras cosanta idirnáisiúnta. There is no doubt we do need reform and certainly it is across the EU and at EU level that we need to make those changes. There can be no failure to recognise the modern nature of asylum or to plan for a system that responds to the reality of asylum, particularly in light of the volatile geopolitical situation across the world and migration that is driven by climate breakdown. The asylum and migration pact, although imperfect, is important and ensures that the EU works together. Going it alone like the UK did, as we can see, brings with it problems and makes things worse. The question of how this reform is implemented, with wider reforms being brought forward at the same time, is where we are at. We need to be extremely careful. We in Ireland have the benefit of being able to learn from the experiences of other jurisdictions, including the UK, regarding what is effective, what is compassionate, what is fair and what does not work. Speaking objectively, there are elements in this Bill that are needed. With it, the Government is attempting to address two decades of policy failure that led to an IP system which left people waiting years for decisions about their status. It is a system that buckled when Ireland started to experience the same IP levels as other European countries, a situation that was compounded by the war in Ukraine. This was a perfect storm; a confluence of factors that are very challenging to manage. Given the tone of debates around migration and the heightened context under which this Bill has come before us, with regular social media posts of deportations and deportation flights, it is our duty, as Opposition Senators, to ask whether we are solely advancing solutions to real-world problems or bringing forward policies that are more to do with playing to a particular political line than improving our system. If it is the latter, what will be the consequences for those whom this claims to serve? I met with the Irish Red Cross today. I share the concerns of the coalitions of civil society organisations that have raised their concerns about this Bill. What will be the consequences for our country of focusing on areas where problems do not exist, like the draconian family reunification changes that were not even required under the pact, while failing to focus on acute problems like the reception and accommodation side? I need to call out persistent efforts by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to muddy the waters about the approach taken to these issues by the previous Government, under which responsibility for immigration control, the International Protection Office, the refugee appeals tribunals and decisions on visas and family unification policy all remained with the Department of justice. The one area moved to the Department of children was responsibility for accommodation for people who were seeking international protection. The rules around family reunification are being tightened for no real reason. There is no requirement in this regard in the EU pact. There is a diminution of legal advices, which tests the limit of established due process, and there are fully desk-based reviews with no oral hearings. In this Bill, some of that is formalised into new structures that look to weigh the balance against someone seeking to access refuge here. While this may be a signal that the Government wants to send in today's debate, it is storing up new problems for the future and penalising people in desperate situations for no real policy benefit. We do need reform. We need decisions to be made efficiently and quickly. I want to acknowledge that following investment on the part of the previous Government, the IPO is delivering its decisions on status in a manner that is far more timely. However, we have to separate out the policy we need from the policy that plays well in political theatre. This means adopting the pact and making our decisions more efficient, but it also calls for the Government to preserve basic legal human rights. It calls for the Government to place the same relentless focus on the accommodation side, as has been mentioned by others, and to move as quickly as possible away from private providers. It calls for broader procedure that does not involve the incarceration of minors and their guardians. We have seen no progress, in any real terms, on the roll-out of State accommodation. The cold house approach, the kind of hostile environment beloved of the Tories in the UK, is not supported by evidence. Look at the post-Brexit numbers in the UK. The Minister of State knows as well as I that overriding factors determining IP numbers to Ireland are decisions made at the Cabinet table in Downing Street. Right now, the numbers are lower. The relentless pressure felt previously by my colleague Deputy Roderic O'Gorman in seeking to source accommodation has lessened somewhat. This is an opportunity. With lower numbers of arrivals, the Government has been given a moment in which to act decisively. While our IP decision system must be more efficient - and that will reduce numbers overall - we must not fail to take advantage of the lower arrival numbers to change the accommodation system. If we begin the move away from expensive private providers of IP accommodation and embed a system of long-term State-led provision, we will find ourselves in a much better position to deal with future challenges. I think the Minister of State would recognise that this is the way forward and that we cannot continue to rely on these private providers. I look forward to the debate on Committee Stage, when we will also be tabling amendments. We have to realise that these waves of migration are going to continue because of climate change and conflict around the world. We have to have a system that is fair and compassionate for all. --- 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/seanad/2026-03-03/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-03