International Protection Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-25 ============================================================ Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South I thank the Senators who tabled the amendments and all those who made contributions. I take my responsibility as Minister before both Houses extremely seriously. The way legislation is made in Ireland is that overwhelmingly it is advanced by Ministers who come before the Houses and listen to debates, and it is this House and the Dáil who make the laws. I have a significant responsibility in respect of it since I have the benefit of a Department and a Government majority behind me. Notwithstanding these advantages, I take my responsibilities extremely seriously. Senators are aware that I have been here quite frequently in respect of legislation. I like to debate legislation. I like to spend time in this House in particular and in the Dáil. The latter is an important part of the legislative process. I get ideas from listening to people in this House. I accept ideas and adopt them when I believe they are good. The process we have in place shows itself to work effectively. Whether it is the defamation Bill, which was completed, and I was here for many days on Committee and Report Stages, or whether it is other legislation that has gone to Committee Stage at the justice committee, I recognise the importance of fully scrutinising legislation. That is why in the Bills that have become law to date, I have gone through the process very methodically. In the context of those which have not yet become law and on which the debate has not been guillotined, I have done the same in order to ensure that I hear a full and considered debate. The International Protection Bill is a different category of legislation. The reason for that is because of the vast volume of provisions it contains. It is an enormous piece of legislation; we can all agree on that. In effect, what it seeks to do is transpose into Irish law the six or seven directives and regulations we have made in agreement with other members of the European Union that will commence on 12 June. However, it also contains our own provisions that we want to include in order to ensure that we reform asylum law in Ireland for the better. We can all agree that the laws which exist in Ireland in respect of asylum need to be improved. Senators may not believe that this is the mechanism to use to improve them, but we can all agree that they have to be improved. I published the general scheme of the International Protection Bill last April. Very detailed pre-legislative scrutiny was carried out in respect of the general scheme by the Oireachtas justice committee, many of the members of which are here. During that process, the Bill was being drafted by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. As everyone here can appreciate, it is an extraordinary body of work to produce a piece of legislation of this detail, length and complexity. I do not think anyone would argue against the fact that it takes a considerable period to do it. I wanted to try to ensure that the legislation would come before the Houses of the Oireachtas as quickly as possible. It was only feasible for this to happen at the beginning of this year. It is important to remind Senators again that we did have pre-legislative scrutiny. When the Bill went to the Dáil, we had three days of Second Stage debate. I agree that the Committee Stage debates here and in the Dáil were not as detailed or as extensive as I would have liked. I am more than happy and would like to discuss issues that I did not get to discuss here or in the Dáil, including family reunification - in the context of which there is broad discretion available to Ireland regarding the rules we are introducing - and those relating to other provisions. It has to be said that I cannot dictate the speed at which we move through amendments in this House or the Lower House. I do not want Senators to think I am trying to avoid scrutiny. I am happy for scrutiny to take place. There is a requirement that the legislation be commenced and up and running by 12 June and be operational by then. Being honest with Senators, as I always am, this puts pressure on me, the Department and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to try to ensure we get the Bill in as good a shape as possible to come before the Houses of the Oireachtas. That is why, in terms of pressures, when the Bill was presented to the Dáil, I had to say that further amendments would be introduced in the Seanad on important issues such as legal counselling. We had a very good debate here last week on the issue of legal counselling and what it constitutes. There are debates here today on the rights of the child, and reference has been made to the letter from the Ombudsman for Children. We are having a debate here and we have another three hours when I will be here and want to debate the issues once the amendments come to the floor. I want to look at the substance of the amendments before us, which seek to ensure there is a report produced. I thank those who tabled the amendments. I also thank Senator McDowell for educating me on Standing Order 179. I had not been aware of this Standing Order prior to him informing me about it last week on Committee Stage. Since then, I have instructed my officials that I want this Standing Order complied with. This means that I want there to be a report completed for this House. If the Bill is enacted sometime in April or May, it will be within a year of that, namely in the first quarter of next year. I have instructed my officials in this regard, and I want to see a report produced to the Seanad as required under Standing Order 179. Similarly, I will do so in respect of the Dáil. It will be the same report. I have no difficulty doing this, and I thank the Senator for bringing the matter to my attention. It may be breached significantly. I was not aware of it when I was a Member of the Oireachtas and before I became a member of the Government. It is obviously a benefit to the Houses of the Oireachtas that this Standing Order exists. I have no doubt that this House and the other should seek to invoke the powers that reside within the Standing Orders by seeking the reports. I will have no difficulty in confirming that I have instructed my officials to prepare a report in accordance with Standing Order 179. There was a discussion about the rights of children. In respect of the rights of children and all applicants under the legislation, and as I mentioned in respect of the previous amendment, there will be a chief inspector's report as well. The report will be annual and deal with many of the issues of concern set out by Senators here. Some Senators have said that this Bill is shameful because of the provisions it contains in respect of children. I totally disagree. I ask people to examine the provisions contained within the legislation in respect of children, be they guarantees for minors, set out in section 31, the provisions dealing with the appointment of representatives of unaccompanied minors, set out in Chapter 2 of Part 3, or the provision on the notification to Tusla where a minor is in the custody of a detained person, provided for in section 112. There are provisions throughout this legislation that seek to protect the unique position of minors who come to Ireland seeking international protection. The issue of unaccompanied minors, which I believe was raised by Senator Higgins, is one of genuine complexity. The Senator asked why we should have age assessments. --- 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