International Protection Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-25 ============================================================ Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South I thank the Senator for his contribution. It is important to point out that receiving appropriate legal counselling is a statutory requirement under the legislation. I have to provide that. I have to make sure that international protection applicants "are being treated humanely in detention in line with national law and the European Convention on Human Rights." The obligations that are set out in terms of the reception conditions and legal counselling are very detailed within the Bill. It sets out very considerable obligations on me and on the State in terms of providing accommodation to individuals who come seeking international protection and of providing legal counselling for the first stage of their applications. Obviously, on the second and appeal stages, I have to provide legal representation, which is even more. All I would say without repeating myself is that once the legislation is commenced, I have no doubt that Senators at the committee or when I am here in this Chamber will be raising issues concerning the operation of the legislation with me. Certainly, I will be questioned about it before the Oireachtas justice committee. I will be questioned, no doubt, in respect of the reports that are going to be produced by the chief inspector on an annual basis, and the media will be very vigorously questioning me as well. That is the appropriate way to deal with it, through those statutory mechanisms and the standard mechanisms available in a free society such as Ireland, as opposed to just putting in the provision that I will produce a report within 12 months. I thank the Senators for their amendment. I have to say, very politely and respectfully, that I cannot accept the amendment. --- 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/2026-03-25/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:46+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-25