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

I will deal with something Deputy Carthy said at the outset. He said we take at face value what applicants say. I am conscious that could be misrepresented. It is not correct. What people put down on their forms is part of the information processing, but we do not just accept, because they say they have come from Syria and are fleeing persecution, that they are fleeing persecution. The whole process is to probe that. It is important to say we do not take at face value what they say and accept it; it is tested. However, a lot of the information we rely upon and interrogate is provided by the applicant.
On the issue Deputy Carthy raised about whether we should be collating information to try to find out how many Irish visa holders claimed international protection, we know the general scheme. The general assessment is that it is about 90%. We know that a significant majority of people claiming international protection-----

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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