{"id":408515,"date":"2026-04-20T16:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/408515\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T16:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:35:07","slug":"council-of-state-asylum-law-meeting-under-way-at-aras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/408515\/","title":{"rendered":"Council of State asylum law meeting under way at \u00c1ras"},"content":{"rendered":"

A meeting of the Council of State at \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in is under way to discuss the constitutionality of proposed new asylum laws.<\/p>\n

Among the 23 members are former presidents Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese and Michael D Higgins, as well as former taoisigh Enda Kenny and Leo Varadkar.<\/p>\n

Also attending the meeting are the Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin and T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris.<\/p>\n

The meeting, convened by President Connolly, began at 3pm and is expected to last a number of hours.<\/p>\n

The International Protection Bill, 2026, passed through both Houses of the Oireachtas last week, but, at the behest of President Connolly, the Council of State will now consider its constitutionality.<\/p>\n

Following the meeting, the President will decide whether to refer the bill to the Supreme Court for its consideration, or to sign it into law.<\/p>\n

It is understood that President Connolly has up until Wednesday night to make that decision.<\/p>\n

\"Former
\nFormer president Michael D Higgins arrives at \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in for the meeting<\/p>\n

Described by the Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan as the most significant reform of Irish asylum laws in the history of the State, it is tied to the EU Migration & Asylum Pact which will come into force across the EU in June.<\/p>\n

It is made up of regulations around screening, tracking and reception conditions. It’s also said to standardise asylum decisions and time limits in which they’re made.<\/p>\n

The decision to convene the Council was welcomed by the Irish Refugee Council, with Sinn F\u00e9in saying it was not a surprise saying it was rushed through the Houses of the Oireachtas in a ‘reckless manner.’<\/p>\n

The Council of State is made up current and former Presidents, taoisigh, t\u00e1naist\u00ed and chief justices, as well as other ex officio members and the President’s seven appointees<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A meeting of the Council of State at \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in is under way to discuss the constitutionality…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-408515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408515","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=408515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}