International Protection
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-26
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Sharon Keogan (IND), Industrial and Commercial Panel

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I am not filled with confidence in relation to the question I asked about how the data is kept on non-co-operative people that turn up within the international protection application process and who are taken out of the system. Are the taxpayers in this country still paying the daily allowance for that individual? Are they still paying for housing for that individual? Are they still paying for the medical card for that individual? I refer to cases where the person is non-co-operative. The problem is that we do not know how many of those people exist. That is a broader problem for the Department, which has responsibility for international protection. There is a body of work to be done within the Department. Taxpayers need to know if people are not turning up for their interviews and they turn out to the non-co-operative because they lied when they presented to the International Protection Office, IPO, at their first entry. They go missing, but they are getting welfare, accommodation and a medical card. Everything is being met by the State. That is simply not good enough. We need to know how many such people are in the country at this moment in time. If they are not here legally and claiming asylum, they should be deported.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-26