International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-18
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

I thank Senator McDowell for his contribution. There are two types of procedure here. I know Senator McDowell is interested in the asylum border procedure but in order to give a full answer to this, I have to make Senators aware of what is provided in section 115, which concerns accelerated examination procedure. There is an accelerated examination procedure and there is an asylum border procedure. Both procedures have to be done on an expedited basis. If Senators look at section 115, they will see it sets out a series of individuals who will be covered by the accelerated examination procedure. They include, for instance, that a third country may be considered to be a safe country of origin for the applicant, the application is a subsequent application which is not inadmissible or there are grounds to consider the applicant a danger to national security. There is, therefore, an accelerated examination procedure that operates under section 115.
There is then also an asylum border procedure set out in Chapter 6. Section 117 sets out the conditions for applying the asylum border procedure. In that section, "external border crossing point" is the basis upon which there is an asylum border procedure.
It is also important to recall that under section 117(5) an "external border crossing point" also means a port or a screening centre. A screening centre is a place where applicants will be sent for the purpose of having their applications assessed. The circumstances in which an application must be examined in the asylum border procedure includes where an applicant has intentionally misled the authorities by providing false documents or information or where in an application, the recognition rate is less than 20%. Procedures will be available to the determining authority, which is me and my officials. It is up to us to determine first-instance applications. Decisions will be made in advance of 12 June as to which type of applications will be dealt with by the asylum border procedure and indeed the accelerated procedure.
Obviously, everything cannot be accelerated. If everything is accelerated, we will not be able to accelerate the ones that merit it. These are the ones that we think we can process quickly. The legislation gives the basis upon which those different types of procedures can be applied. The effect of them is to expedite the applications to get quick determinations. As I said in my first response to Senator McDowell, at present we are operating the system, as it will operate after 12 June, on a pilot basis. We are operating it for those countries that are designated in Ireland as safe countries. We are also operating it for countries such as Nigeria. We are getting an expedited processing of those applications within the periods set down in the legislation. I know Senator McDowell's concern relates to how we are going to be able to deal with this, since we are not able to process them quickly at present. In fact, we are able to process those applications that are now being dealt with on a pilot basis as accelerated or asylum border procedure within the period that is, in total, six months between first instance, secondary appeal decision and then deportation order. We are getting deportation orders signed or we are getting people accepted within the process within the time periods set out in the Bill.
I am conscious there may be concern on the part of Senators as to whether it will work effectively and in accordance with the timelines set out. I believe it will. Ultimately, we will only be able to see that once the commencement starts on 12 June. The trial procedure operating at present with the pilot projects is being done within the time periods set out in the legislation.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-18