International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-19
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Frances Black (IND), Industrial and Commercial Panel

The Minister is very welcome to the House. I want to talk about amendment No. 116, which replaces a section that outlines a huge range of duties that representatives for minors have. It is obviously welcome that it covers a wide range of responsibilities such as helping them through the screening process, meeting with the minor personally, taking into account their views and helping them to provide biometric data, lodge an application and prepare for an interview.
It is concerning that the Bill allows for an individual to represent 30 minors at once. It seems entirely unrealistic that a single person could provide this level of attention to 30 minors at once while also being able to recognise and take care of their individual circumstances and needs. Some consideration has to be given to that number, bearing in mind that some of those minors are coming from war-torn countries and might have serious trauma issues.
We submitted an amendment to section 47, which was ruled out of order for reasons of cost to the Exchequer, that sought to add functions that a representative person would have in the event that they were in contact with a child who had been trafficked. It would be useful to understand the Minister's reasoning for not including such provisions as this seems like a really sensible place to create a connection between our international protection system and the national referral mechanism.

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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