International Protection Bill 2026: From the Seanad Dail Éireann — 2026-04-15 ============================================================ Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South I want to thank the three Deputies for their contributions, which I listened to very carefully. At the outset, I wish to say that the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, and I realise this is extremely challenging and complicated legislation before the Houses. Nothing we can do can remove the complicated nature of the legislation. It just is the case that with the international protection system, the asylum system, that is operating not just in Ireland or in other EU countries but throughout the world where many asylum applicants come from, there is an enormously complicated legal system in place for the purpose of dealing with those asylum applications. Part of the reason for that is that we are dealing with the rights of individuals and we want to try to ensure there is fairness for individuals who have applied for international protection and asylum. At the same time, we have to ensure there is balance as well in protecting the interests of the state that is receiving those applicants. We know from the international protection system we operate at present under the 2015 legislation that it is also extremely complicated legislation. It is not anywhere near as lengthy as this but the reason this legislation is lengthy is that we are trying to consolidate in one piece of legislation how Ireland will respond to people who come to make an application here for international protection. One of the reasons the Bill is very lengthy is that we have decided to include within the legislation, for instance, the reception conditions directive and the requirements that are on Ireland as a State when a person comes into Ireland claiming asylum. Previously, that was dealt with through secondary legislation. It was not debated in the House; it was just a statutory instrument that was signed by the Minister. I could have done that again but I believed it was more appropriate to have it within the main body of the primary legislation. I do appreciate the complexity, length and detail of the legislation and it is challenging for all of us. It is challenging for the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, for me and for officials in my Department and I appreciate it is challenging for Opposition Deputies. I do not say this in a patronising way but I commend the diligence of the three Deputies from the Opposition who have been here all of the time as the legislation has gone through the House. Deputy Carthy stated at the outset that the fact I am bringing forward technical changes at this final stage is an example of the recklessness and flawed nature of the legislation. I think that is excessive, and I do listen to what Deputy Carthy has to say. Remember this Bill is around 270 pages long and has over 313 sections. The four technical changes I am making are as follows: first, I am putting in a comma; second, I am inserting the word "in"; third, I am changing the letter "a" to "d"; and finally, I am inserting the number "1" after section 144. I do not think that is reckless. I will not go back to them but Deputy Carthy mentioned issues about the pact. I have set out my views in respect of that before. No matter whether we are in the EU migration pact or not, we still have to deal with individuals coming into Ireland who claim asylum. We saw that the UK decided to get out not just of the pact but out of the EU and its issues in respect of international protection have not in any way been reduced. However, we did - I commended the Deputy and the other Members here before - have a very thorough pre-legislative scrutiny process. We had a Second Stage debate here that went on over three days. I accept that the Committee Stage hearings were truncated because they were held on the floor of the House as opposed to the committee room. I am not asking the Deputies to agree with this but everyone in this House knows that if it had gone to Committee Stage in the committee room, it would have taken weeks if not months to get through. We can discuss important issues that are dealt with in the amendments. For instance, the amendment we are talking about now concerns legal counselling. All three Deputies said that this would end up in the courts. As sure as night follows day, it is going to end up in the courts. There is no doubt about that but the success or effectiveness of a piece of legislation is not measured by whether it ends up in the courts. The reason it will end up in the courts is this is a highly litigious area and it is new legislation. When there is legislation of this complexity and length, Deputy Kelly is right - lawyers will be parsing it to see if there are any inconsistencies or failings. If the test was not to introduce legislation if it was going to be brought before the courts, we would do nothing in this House. --- 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/dail/2026-04-15/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-15