International Protection Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-25 ============================================================ Laura Harmon (LAB), Industrial and Commercial Panel I also welcome my guests in the Gallery from the Cork Boat Club, Blackrock, Cork - Paul and Councillor Ciara O'Connor who are here as well. I agree with colleagues about the need to provide reporting in terms of this legislation. As part of this, I want to speak to amendment No. 272 but before I do that, I want to say that the use of the guillotine so frequently in the Dáil and Seanad is not just disappointing, it is quite alarming. We are here for a reason. As Senator Boyhan often says, we are a revising Chamber. This is part of what the Seanad does. The Oireachtas in Leinster House is a bicameral Legislature. We have two Chambers for a reason. We would have loved to have had more time to debate all these amendments. It is really unfortunate given that there are over 300 amendments. My name is on 45 of those amendments. I am really dismayed that we may not get to speak to all of them. The heads of the Bill are clear. The Title of the Bill has the word "protection" in it. It is the International Protection Bill. That leads me to amendment No. 272, which relates to the rights of the child. This amendment calls for a report on the implementation of the Act. It asks that within 12 months of the passing of the Act, and every two years afterwards, the Minister would produce a report on the implementation of the Act regarding the compliance and adherence to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The report should analyse the effects of this Act and include details as to whether the treatment of asylum seekers, international protection applicants and other immigrants is compliant with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This report should be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas. When we say the Minister should produce a report, of course we mean the Minister, in conjunction with the resources that he has in his office, and the many experts here in Ireland who monitor human rights, and the rights of children in Ireland and internationally. I saw the Ombudsman for Children, Niall Muldoon, stated in the Irish Examiner today that asylum seekers who are children are going to be hit hardest by this legislation. His comments about immigration are extremely worrying. This is one of the biggest changes to immigration law in Ireland in our recent history. It is extensive broad-ranging legislation and we believe there has to be proper examination of it. The Bill has been rushed through. It should not have been guillotined in the first place. We did bring other sensible amendments as well. In amendment No. 21 on Committee Stage, which we debated last week, we sought to define the best interests of the child within the legislation because that is not defined. We proposed that part of the broad definition should take into account the child's age and maturity, their identity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, safety and welfare and development needs, preservation of family relationships, and any particular vulnerabilities that a child might have in any other circumstances pertaining to the child concerned. The Minister responded that would have been too limiting, although they were very broad elements that we sought to include in the legislation. Now we are asking him to please provide a report as to how the legislation would impact on the rights of the child. It is reasonable and sensible to ask that within 12 months, we would seek to review the legislation. There are clear concerns within this Chamber and from the public. People have been emailing us from different organisations who are concerned about child welfare and the detention of children and how that might affect them. We need to safeguard against this. If the legislation is effective and if it safeguards the rights of children then this is not something we should be afraid of providing. It is sensible and certainly is not an onerous thing to do. I urge the Minister to support this 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