Housing and Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-14
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Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

With respect, family reunification may be a formal process, but it can also be an informal process. There is a formal process for seeking family reunification, but another version of it is that someone is reunited with a family member. Is this reference intentional or inadvertent? Can it be monitored to ensure that no unforeseen issues arise? There is a reason that the Bill sets out a different set of criteria for “lawfully resident” and “habitually resident”. It is looking for both of those standards to be met.
It is not clear to me why the standard of habitually resident is still being applied to a child. Has there been some kind of a risk analysis done to ensure that there is not an inadvertent consequence from that? I am a little concerned. At a minimum, will the Minister commit to monitoring that issue as it arises because it is a potential omission within the legislation? I accept the bona fides of the intention of child exemption, but there is a gap in the Bill before us.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:15+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-14