International Protection Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-25
============================================================

Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

The reason age assessment, no matter how it is conducted, is important is that if a person comes to Ireland and says they are 17 years of age, there is an obligation on the State, if their statement is true, to ensure the person is treated as a child, with all the benefits and protections that come with that under Irish legislation. The reason age assessments are necessary is that it would be a serious issue for child protection if an adult, say one of 20 years of age, were put into a residence reserved exclusively for minors. It is a very difficult position for the State when somebody says they are 17 years of age and there is a dispute about it or doubt over it. The presumption of minority applies but it is perfectly legitimate to have age assessments conducted. In fact, it would be irresponsible of the State if age assessments were not conducted.
Senator Flynn referred to direct provision as though it were a prison. It is not. We provide accommodation to people who come to Ireland seeking international protection. We do it in a much more professional and humane way than other EU countries of which I have experience in this regard. The reason the discussion is no longer about the abolition of direct provision, as some Senators raised and which reflects a debate we were having in 2019 or so, is because the numbers arriving into Ireland have increased so significantly. When having this debate in 2018 and 2019, we were talking about perhaps 4,000 to 5,000 people coming to Ireland each year claiming international protection. The debate at that time was about whether we could improve the standard of accommodation for them and abolish direct provision. I, along with the justice committee of which I was a member, visited many direct provision centres in the Dáil term that ran from 2016 to 2020. The focus then was on improving conditions. After Covid, from 2022 onwards, the numbers increased very significantly: 13,500 in 2022, 13,500 in 2023, 18,500 in 2024, and down to 13,000 last year. The significant number arriving put pressure on the ability to remove direct provision. Abolishing it cannot be achieved at this stage.
With regard to the pressures on the Government when it comes to the provision of suitable accommodation, I hope Senators appreciate it is a significant burden but that the Government is doing as good a job as it can to ensure accommodation is provided.
I fully appreciate the Senators' view that amendments are coming in very late and that their time to debate the legislation is restricted. However, all I ask them to note is that it is not a trend on my part to guillotine legislation. The reason it is being proposed here is the time pressure to ensure the Bill is enacted. Also, the size of, and level of detail in, the Bill meant we could not just arrive, at the beginning, with a finished product with everything in it.

---

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