{"id":401284,"date":"2026-04-16T08:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T08:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/401284\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T08:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T08:28:09","slug":"international-protection-bill-passed-in-dail-vote-after-three-hour-debate-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/401284\/","title":{"rendered":"International Protection Bill passed in D\u00e1il vote after three-hour debate \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The most significant reform of immigration law in the history of the State has been passed by the D\u00e1il<\/a> and now goes to President Catherine Connolly<\/a> for consideration and signature.<\/p>\n

The controversial International Protection Bill was accepted by 86 votes to 62 after a final and curtailed three-hour debate that considered 267 Government amendments from the Seanad<\/a>, most of which passed without debate.<\/p>\n

The reforming legislation aims to bring asylum law in line with the European Union<\/a> migration and asylum pact in advance of a June 6th deadline.<\/p>\n

The pact introduces a wide number of restrictive measures to limit the number of immigrants<\/a> gaining access to the EU.<\/p>\n

Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> said he was seeking to \u201cshift the balance slightly in favour of the State\u201d and \u201creduce the numbers coming into Ireland\u201d as the legislation came under Opposition fire.<\/p>\n

The Government is trying to consolidate in one piece of legislation Ireland\u2019s response to people applying for international protection, he said. <\/p>\n

The Bill includes the reception conditions directive and the requirements on Ireland when a person claims asylum, including the provision of accommodation.<\/p>\n

Under the reforms first time asylum applications are expected to be processed within three months, with any appeal dealt with within a further three months.<\/p>\n

Applicants will undergo a screening process including security and identity checks including the taking of biometric data.<\/p>\n

The legislation establishes an appeals tribunal with fewer oral hearings and permits the detention of children in defined \u201clast resort\u201d circumstances for up to 12 hours and \u201cin the best interests\u201d of the minor. <\/p>\n

In the final debate Sinn F\u00e9in justice spokesman Matt Carthy accused the Minister of taking a \u201creckless\u201d approach guided solely by the need to live up to the provisions of the EU pact.<\/p>\n

The pact \u201ctakes no account of the unique circumstances\u201d of a \u201cnation that is divided\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

It also takes no account of the Common Travel Area with a state that is not part of the EU or the pact, he added.<\/p>\n

The Minister told him, however, that \u201cno matter whether we are in the migration pact or not, we still have to deal with individuals coming into Ireland to claim asylum. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK decided to get out, not just of the pact but out of the EU, and their issues in respect of international protection have not in any way been reduced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour justice spokesman Alan Kelly told the Minister \u201cit\u2019s bad legislation\u201d and \u201cyou\u2019ll have an army of lawyers coming in\u201d, adding there will be \u201chuge legal challenges\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Minister acknowledged the legislation will end up in the courts. \u201cIt is new legislation,\u201d and \u201clawyers will be parsing over it\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said there were \u201cendless judgments\u201d on the international protection system. \u201cIt is just a very litigious area\u201d, because of the large numbers coming into Ireland and the high proportion of refusals.<\/p>\n

Social Democrats justice spokesman Gary Gannon appealed to allow family unification within a year of an asylum seeker being granted leave to stay in the State.<\/p>\n

He said the current waiting time is about 18 months but the increase to two years \u201cmeans that a person will have to wait the best part of three, 3\u00bd years\u201d to be reunited with family. <\/p>\n

The Dublin Central TD said family reunification \u201chas never been in any way a great impact upon the system. The numbers are fairly minuscule.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan told him, however, that asylum policy in Ireland must \u201ctake into account what is happening in the UK because it has a very significant impact on what happens in Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n

The UK last September suspended refugee family reunification, he said, and he had to take account of events in the UK that create a \u201cpull factor\u201d for Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may not sound virtuous but I want to try to reduce the numbers coming into Ireland,\u201d the Minister added, because the statistics showed too many people seeking asylum were subsequently found not to be entitled to remain in the State.<\/p>\n

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) welcomed a number of the amendments the Minister made to the legislation including around accommodation for disable people, pregnant women, trafficking victims and unaccompanied children in deciding on accommodation.<\/p>\n

But it said it still had significant human rights concerns.<\/p>\n

Chief commissioner Liam Herrick said \u201cthe Bill still provides for overly broad and questionable powers of detention, does not provide for access to legal advice and representation at the first stage and purports to restrict the right to family reunification\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The most significant reform of immigration law in the history of the State has been passed by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15049,5148,42,1629,18573,43,15050,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-401284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-dail-eireann","9":"tag-european-union","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-immigration","12":"tag-jim-ocallaghan","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-seanad-eireann","15":"tag-top-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topnews","18":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}