International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-18 ============================================================ Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland I suppose there is then a question of there being a two-tier system. Again, these would be people found to be successful international protection applicants. I think there is still a concern but I know we are a long way from voting on amendment No. 269. I want to indicate now, though, because this might be our only chance to say it, that I have concerns if we end up with intentionally punitive social welfare provisions for those who are found to be successful asylum seekers, legitimately seeking international protection. It would be a significant move away from the basic equality of treatment in our social welfare system. I will be opposing it. Turning back to amendment No. 10, this reads: In page 20, line 3, after “2004” to insert the following: “and any immigration officer performing functions conferred on him or her by this Act shall, if requested by a person affected, produce the warrant of appointment or a copy of it to that person”. Immigration officers are given very wide-ranging and significant powers under this Bill, including the power to detain people and children without a warrant and rights to detain people in a variety of different situations, including in a car. We will come to some of that later. It is inevitable, though, that we will find immigration officers in complex situations making decisions about another person’s freedom and liberty. There are significant concerns about the requisite levels of training that immigration officers performing the functions set out under this Bill will be required to have and again in terms of accountability. This particular amendment seeks to ensure that immigration officers who are performing functions under this Bill will be required to identify themselves to a person affected on request. Currently, immigration officers are appointed under the Immigration Act 2004. This Act requires them to identify themselves in their duties but that provision only applies to functions performed under that Act. Immigration officers are required to identify themselves when they are performing functions relating to the Immigration Act 2004, but that same obligation is not specified in this Bill. Our proposed amendment would simply carry the same requirement that is there under the 2004 Act forward into this Bill, ensuring that immigration officers performing functions under this Bill would have that same obligation to identify themselves on request. It seems like a small thing but it is a very significant thing. We have seen what has happened in the United States, for example, and none of us would have believed it. When we say, “Oh, that would not happen here”, I do not think they would have believed it would have happened there either. Masked ICE agents employed by the state refuse to identify themselves and roam the streets, where they can detain people without warrants or due process and who simply do not have to identify themselves and will not, in fact, even show their faces. As drafted, the Bill inadvertently sets the possibility of something similar here. The Bill allows for immigration officers to detain persons to determine their identity or nationality. This is something we will come to, but it is quite an outrage. It will be possible to detain persons, and this will not solely be persons who are in the international protection system. We should mention this point. It is a wider power that is being conferred on immigration officers. It is not limited. If we look to the United States, we see Somalis, for example, being picked out and targeted, as well as others. There is that kind of danger there. It is not limited just to applicants for immigration protection. As the Bill is drafted, this provision could feasibly be extended to anybody who is lawfully resident whom one of these newly appointed immigration officers determines they wish to detain and examine their identity. This would not be somebody that immigration officers would know they have a reason to detain. It would be somebody whom they do not know and whose identity they do not know. In terms of how the powers are worded, they are worded so widely. There are significant questions to be asked about who these immigration officers will be. Section 217 of the Bill allows a Minister to enter into contracts for services for these functions. Will the immigration officers be privately contracted? Will they be part of the Garda National Immigration Bureau? Will they be part of a border management unit? Will they be moving separately and freely, as we have seen in the case of ICE in America, where they operate in a completely separate system? Where will the accountability be? It is critically important, however likely or unlikely the Minister might think these scenarios may be, that we look to what the Bill provides for and what it does not provide for. Right now, the Bill provides for very wide-ranging and significant powers for individuals who are appointed as immigration officers. What it does not allow for is clarity around exactly how they will be trained and whether they will be public employees or may be privately contracted. It also does not require and set out a requirement that they will be willing to identify themselves if requested by a person who is affected or, indeed, that they will provide their warrant of appointment or a copy of it to that person. I would like the Minister to clarify these issues, particularly those in relation to the training and concerning the question of whether there is a willingness to extend the same basic requirement that is in the Immigration Act 2004 into this Act. --- 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