He has a lot to answer for.

I thank Senator Stephenson for her amendment and all Senators for their contributions. It has been a very interesting debate and I am going to try to respond to it as much as I can. I will start by looking at the specific amendment. The debate we had went beyond the amendment, but I want to deal with the amendment at the outset. What Senator Stephenson is proposing is that a provision be introduced into section 3 - which is a section that governs orders and regulations I make under the Act – and that provision will…

If the Senator would let me-----

Slowly.

Amendment No. 20 is a technical amendment to repeal section 20 of the 2015 Act on the detention of applicants. Following the commencement of this Bill, any applicants being detained under that Act will be detained under Part 5 of this Act. It is therefore necessary to repeal section 20 of the 2015 Act. Amendment No. 273 is a consequential transitional provision to deal with cases where an applicant is detained under section 20 of the 2015 Act immediately before the commencement of this Bill. It ensures that the det…

I thank Senator Cosgrove for tabling the amendment and I thank those of her colleagues who co-signed it. Senator Cosgrove is correct in identifying that under the new scheme, international protection officers will not be independent in the performance of their functions. That is correct. There is a change in this legislation, and it is a change that is apparent when we look at the EU directives. The entity that is going to be determining applications at first instance is the Minister. I am the determining authority…

These issues have been taken on board. Section 116 expressly sets out that “The best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration in the carrying out of procedures in respect of a minor under this Part.” There are also other references to the best interests of the child being a primary consideration in the Bill.

I thank Senators Higgins and Ruane for their amendment. I will start with the specific wording of it. It states, "Facial image data maintained as part of a record of biometric data taken under this Chapter shall not be used as grounds for detention." There is no basis upon which the maintenance of data would be used as a grounds for detention. I will set out the procedure under the Bill. Sections 14 and 15 deal with Eurodac. When somebody comes to Ireland and claims international protection, we tell them that they …

I will start by answering Senator Keogan's question as to what happens if somebody does not agree to provide their biometric data. That is an offence and they can be brought before the District Court. Ultimately, it will probably be implicitly recognised as a withdrawal of their application. It is very reasonable on the part of the State to tell somebody who has come in to claim asylum that we want to take their fingerprints and photograph and that we want to know their identity. That is a perfectly reasonable requ…

To deal with Senator Higgins's point, I should point out that, when I was answering in respect of the management of biometric data, I referred her to section 17. Section 17(2) provides very specific details as to how long the data can be retained. That is set out in that subsection. The Senator spoke about what the data was used for. The reason people are put through the process of Eurodac screening is to establish their identities. That is the whole purpose of this. The Eurodac system contains the identities of ve…

I thank Senators for their contributions. I thank Senators Higgins, Ruane and Flynn for amendment No. 30. I thank Senator McCormack for amendment No. 58. I will deal specifically with amendment No. 30 in the first instance. The purpose of that amendment is to delete section 22(5). Subsection (5) permits gardaí to direct a person, who otherwise is excluded, to attend at a screening centre if the garda, immigration officer or an officer of mine believes it is in the interest of public policy or national security. I w…

I thank colleagues for their contributions to this debate. I acknowledge and welcome the fact that the majority of the House will be supporting the order to extend the ARP until 2027. It is important to acknowledge that this was a very innovative and successful mechanism, introduced back in July 2022, to respond to the fact that Ireland held itself out as a very welcoming place for Ukrainian people who were fleeing the war in Ukraine and who were entitled to apply to be beneficiaries of temporary protection under t…

The change ensures that Part 3 of the Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026 precludes properties from the scheme that were registered with the Residential Tendencies Board at any time since March 2022. The concern that Sinn Féin has and had is now alleviated by the change in the statutory regime that was brought in by my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Browne. I thank people for the debate and I look forward to their support when it comes to voting on the motion.

Not agreed.

I thank the Senators whose contributions I have been here to listen to. I also thank the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, for initiating this motion and I apologise to the Senators I did not get an opportunity to hear. There is a broad recognition that Ireland responded generously to the plight of Ukrainian people who were subjected to an illegal invasion by Russia four years ago. A decision was made across the European Union that the temporary protection provision would kick in and it was appropriate and necessar…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am pleased to introduce the Bill to the House. This Bill has a single purpose - to assist the Omagh Bombing Inquiry established by the Secretary State for Northern Ireland in February 2024 to investigate whether the bombing could have been prevented by the United Kingdom's state authorities. Its terms of reference are set out in the Schedule to the Bill for ease of reference. The Government has made clear its commitment to facilitating and supporting the work of …

The number of people we have in An Garda Síochána is extremely important from the point of view of enforcing the law. It is probably the most important part of the functions carried out by us, as Ministers, to ensure that the law we make in this House is enforced. At present, there is a workforce of approximately 18,000 in An Garda Síochána. This includes 14,397 attested members, 3,527 Garda staff and 308 Garda reserves. Last year, 619 gardaí attested from the Garda College, which, I am pleased to say, was the high…

We can agree on one thing, namely that it is heading in the right direction. It is certainly improving. The fact that we have seen the highest number of gardaí attesting in seven years is a very positive story from the point of view of the Irish public. The Deputy is correct in stating that we ran two recruitment campaigns, in which there was huge interest, last year. We got 11,000 people expressing an interest in applying to join. We are processing those applications much faster. The fact that we got 223 new recru…

Overtime is always an integral part of the service provided by An Garda Síochána. Every year, there are major events that have to be policed. I have spoken extensively to the Commissioner about the commitments arising from the EU Presidency and the Ireland-Israel soccer match. Whatever happens, the Commissioner has informed me that there will be resources available to police these events. We want to get as many people as we can into An Garda Síochána. A number of significant changes made in recent times have had a …

I thank the Deputy for his very opportune question. Last Friday, at the UK-Ireland Summit 2026 in Cork, I had a discussion with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, in respect of the common travel area, the new legislation that we are going to enact here and the need to ensure that there will be no abuse of the common travel area. Regrettably, we do see the latter between this jurisdiction and Northern Ireland. Last month, I had a discussion by way of a remote meeting with the Home Secretary, S…