International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage (Resumed) Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-19 ============================================================ Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel I welcome the Minister of State. I will not reiterate what others have said but I wish to convey to him my disappointment. I am not going to elongate it as he has heard it before. It is something of a disappointment that this Stage of the proceedings is going to be guillotined. Parties and many other groups advocated for the retention of the Seanad but this makes a farce of this House. We are willing, we are ready and we are well-paid public servants who want to engage in a parliamentary process. We are, of course, the Upper House and we do not need anyone to explain that to us but we, as the Minister of State's former leader, Leo Varadkar, mentioned, are principally a revising Chamber. That is our function in the Constitution and we are effectively being denied the ability to exercise this. We could sit here until 10 p.m. There is no reason well-paid Ministers and Ministers of State, well-paid Senators and, indeed, officials cannot use the parliamentary process to engage in teasing out legislation. That is our function and our job. When we try to justify and explain the importance of the Upper House, it is very difficult when effectively we have a party whip system. The Minister of State, clearly, is involved with that, it is the party structure and I accept that as I am a realist. However, it is disappointing. I always say to people that my audience is outside. It is in that little camera up on the wall. It is the people who tonight in their homes will listen to the Oireachtas reports. Let us therefore keep the communication simple. The coalition Government has decided collectively to guillotine very important legislation and this prevents the democratically elected parliamentarians in this House from fully exercising their function and from calling on the Minister to account for the amendments. A very substantial number of these amendments are the Minister's. We will not be able to discuss them. The Minister will not have time to set them out, which is disappointing too. I accept the Minister of State is part of a team and he is here and I want to be respectful, but I just wanted to make that point because it is important we articulate that concern. Amendment No. 16 from my colleague, Senator Keogan, provides for a definition of "national reception capacity" as the number of applicants who can be accommodated within State-provided reception facilities in a manner consistent with the standards of - this is the issue I wish to speak to the Minister of State about - the reception conditions directive. I understand that directive was updated in 2024 and has the reference number 1346 for that year. It sets out minimum standards for the treatment of asylum seekers across the member states, including Ireland, regarding access to housing, food, healthcare and education for minors. That is an important point because there is misinformation and disinformation in the debate and, to be fair to those on all sides, it is important we be clear about what we mean by terms like the EU reception conditions directive. I understand this directive mandates faster access to the labour market within six months and harmonises reception standards to ensure dignified, consistent care while applicants are being processed. I would expect nothing less from the European member states, including Ireland. I will mention some of the key directives because I want to ask the Minister of State to confirm whether this is his understanding of what I am led to believe is tied up with the EU reception conditions directive. The key aspects of this directive include standardised living conditions. Member states must ensure an adequate standard of living, including housing, food, clothing and daily expense allowances. There are of course conditions attached to that allowance and I think the Minister has covered that before. A second aspect is that there be faster access to the labour market. Applicants will have the right to work within six months, which was previously nine months, of their application being registered. A third aspect is protection of minors. This is an especially important issue and one I want to focus on. I acknowledge the enormous work of the Ombudsman for Children, the human rights bodies and the many advocacy groups that engaged in this process. Again, we will not have an opportunity to give voice to some of the amendments they asked us to pursue, or even to any of the topics or issues, because if this Bill is guillotined as the Government proposes, we will not reach all the sections. Consequently, we will not even be able to comment at this stage in the process. Access to education for minors must be provided as soon as possible but not later than two months from the application being lodged. I note that is the date of the application being lodged rather than it being approved. Then I come to special needs. Specific attention and supports are provided for applicants with special reception needs. Those are varied and wide so I will not go through the whole list. That is my understanding of the EU reception conditions directive, but what does the Minister of State say? Is that his understanding? Can he confirm that? Is he happy with that? In some ways it is positive and it is fair. Of course we must have consistency across the European Union and we must tackle this in many ways but when the Minister announced the legislation, he spoke about how he wanted consistency, fairness and a robust scheme. I do not altogether like the word "robust" in this context but we have to be compassionate. We have to be caring. It has to be human rights-based. Everything we do has to be human rights-based. Where children - unaccompanied minors - find themselves in our State, no matter what way they came in, we must have a human and humanitarian response. We must commit to their safeguarding and I understand that is the gist of it, but the major concerns expressed to me via emails and letters are from people who are spelling out concerns about vulnerable people and minors. We are a republic and we have a special place for children and the family in our Constitution. We have to be consistent. Regardless of how and when they came, where children and minors find themselves within our State, it is paramount that we protect them at every opportunity. I ask the Minister of State to clarify his understanding of the EU reception conditions directive. It has reasonable objectives and ones that all of us would seek to do but clarity is needed. This is a very complex Bill. Sometimes the key is clarity about what we are attempting to do and our understanding of what is being proposed for us. I am interested in the Minister of State's comments on that. --- 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/2026-03-19/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:45+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-19