International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-18 ============================================================ Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland -----there is the state of origin and then there was an optional provision from the European Union, which looked to countries with which the European Union has an arrangement. It is effectively the El Salvador or Rwanda amendment whereby persons are being potentially deported to countries with which they have no meaningful connection but with which the EU has an arrangement. When we previously transposed other aspects of the migration pact, that aspect was not. I ask the Minister to please confirm whether in terms of amendment No. 7 that that is still the instance and that in safe countries, we are not looking at situations of deportations to countries to which the person does not have a connection but the EU simply has an arrangement. I am being straightforward in saying I do not know and seek a clarification. --- 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