International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-18 ============================================================ Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South I thank the Senators for their contributions. Ireland does provide a lot of paid-for legal advice and legal representation to applicants for international protection at present. Anyone who has had an opportunity to look at the report of the Legal Aid Board will have seen that just less than 50% of the applications for civil legal aid received by the Legal Aid Board are in respect of international protection. When dealing with that issue, I obviously have to ensure that not all of the resources of the Legal Aid Board are eaten up by international protection, representation or aid. That is why in the budget I managed to allocate an extra €8 million for the purpose of extra funding for the Legal Aid Board. That is in recognition of the extra duties that are going to rest on the Legal Aid Board because of the changes being proposed in this legislation. As indicated by Senators, it is the case, as I said earlier, that legal counselling is something new in Irish law. It will provide people with general advice and guidance on their application. That does not have to be legal advice. In many instances it is not legal advice, assistance or representation, which are set out elsewhere. The obligations we have under the regulations that govern the legislation I am debating here include at first instance a requirement on Ireland to provide legal counselling. The requirement under the regulations at first instance is to provide legal counselling. When it gets to appeal, there is an obligation on Ireland to provide legal representation. It is interesting when we look at the regulations that are being transposed by this Bill, whether it is the asylum procedures regulation or the asylum and migration management regulation, that both of them contain different definitions of what legal counselling is, which is something new not just for this country but for elsewhere as well. What we have sought to do in the proposed definition of legal counselling, which is contained within amendment No. 14, is to set out what in fact legal counselling will be, namely, "any guidance, information or assistance given to an applicant on matters relating to the application procedure by a person appointed under section 11B(1) of the Act of 1995, which is the Civil Legal Aid Act, to provide legal counselling". It goes on but I will pause there because one of the questions from Senator Stephenson related to who is going to be providing legal counselling. It will not have to be people who are legally qualified. In fact, it will probably be people who are paralegals or employees hired or contracted by the Legal Aid Board. That is appropriate when we look at what is required in respect of legal counselling. It is predominantly providing guidance on and explanation of the procedure for an application. That is factual advice a person can provide irrespective of whether they have legal qualifications as a practising barrister or solicitor. Senator Noonan mentioned assistance with the lodging of an application. That is provided in many instances at present by advocacy groups or groups that are assisting applicants. Here, it will be the function of the legal counsellor. The function of legal counselling will be to provide guidance on the different procedures under which an application may be examined, the rules related to the admissibility, legal issues arising in the course of the procedure under which the application is examined, and guidance on and explanation of the criteria and procedure for determining the member states responsible in accordance with Part 4. That covers many of the issues raised by Senator Ruane when she wondered what would be covered by legal counselling in terms of the concerns she expressed. There will also be continuous guidance on and assistance with providing information that could help determine the member state responsible. I want to emphasise, however, that just because the State is providing legal counselling, it does not mean an applicant cannot seek legal advice or legal aid. They can continue to seek legal aid. In many respects what is being provided for by legal counselling is an additional service that will be available to people who at present would not have that. Members will also note that amendment No. 66 states, "An applicant may request legal counselling at any stage". It is important to note that they can be excluded from getting legal counselling if they are already being provided with or assisted by a legal representative. This is an area that has a lot of lawyers practising in it. It will mean that under the Civil Legal Aid Act there will be a requirement for a person designated under the Act to provide legal counselling. It will be of use to applicants. I must also be conscious, however, that it is not something that inherently requires legal advice. It is about explaining to people who have come from a country and wishes to make an application for asylum that they have an obligation to set out their narrative clearly and honestly as to the basis upon which they are claiming asylum in Ireland. It will also explain to them that their application will be assessed under the accelerated procedure, the asylum border procedure or the other procedures available and that will be determined in a period of time. It will be beneficial and of assistance. It will speed up the process. I must also be conscious of the general clause. I cannot provide mandatory legal aid and legal representation to everyone who comes to Ireland claiming asylum. I simply cannot do that because I do not have the resources. However, individuals can apply to the Legal Aid Board to be represented or to seek legal aid. --- 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/2026-03-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-18