International Protection Bill 2026: From the Seanad
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-15
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

I thank the Deputy very much for his question. Obviously, in the first instance, when people arrive into Ireland claiming international protection, they are checked on Eurodac and they are screened. In respect of those processes, they are required to give biometric data. They get their fingerprints taken, they get their faces photographed and other information is taken in respect of them. They set out where they have come from. That is their objective. They have to say where they have come from. They have to set out the narrative of which country they came from but also in terms of the countries through which they travelled. The advantage of having Eurodac is that it will provide us with information as to whether or not an applicant was, in fact, in another EU country. The UK does not have access to Eurodac. It is not on it, although it is very interested and keen to gain access to it. However, there is going to be the sharing of some information with the UK and, in many instances, we will be able to identify whether the person has come from the UK. If a person comes from the UK, it can be the case that we determine his or her application to be inadmissible but there is a process in that to determine the inadmissibility of it. Then, even if we do determine inadmissibility, there is the issue about trying to return the individual. However, the way we would get the information is through asking the person the question, and we assume that the information we are going to be given is accurate and honest. The systems we also have access to include Eurodac. There are other systems as well that will provide information in respect to the individuals that will give us an indication as to the pathway of their journey through Europe.

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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