International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-19
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Sarah O'Reilly (AON), Agricultural Panel

I thank the Minister of State for being here. I support Senator Keogan’s amendments and I thank her for bringing them forward. Amendments Nos. 16, 380, and 381 are reasonable asks. It is easy to push this debate into the political sparring field of left or right but if we do not have the facilities to provide adequate accommodation, it is nothing other than common sense to limit the numbers of asylum seekers. One area where this becomes particularly important is child protection. Under the EU reception conditions directive, minors seeking protection should be accommodated separately from unrelated adults. In theory, that safeguard is clear. In practice, however, the State has struggled with the fundamental issue of age verification. There have been 14 legal cases taken against the State in the past four years where age assessment was a central issue. The situation has been complicated by confusion over which agency is actually responsible for confirming whether someone presenting as an unaccompanied minor is under 18. Tusla has clarified that it does not carry out statutory age assessments. Its role is limited to determining whether someone referred to it qualifies for services under the Child Care Act. Meanwhile, the International Protection Office is in fact the body responsible for determining an applicant's age for the purposes of the international protection system.
If the Minister of State looks at the reception conditions directive, we are not even close to meeting those guidelines. The Government is presiding over children being housed in private, for-profit accommodation without any adequate safeguards in place for them. I ask the Government to support this amendment and indicate its commitment to protecting children who come into the State unaccompanied and who deserve the highest standards of care and safety.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:45+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-19