The first consequence for the people of Saggart of the commencement of the International Protection Act 2026 today is that the footfall and most likely the numbers being accommodated at Citywest is due to greatly increase.
This is on foot of the announcement that “People seeking international protection will now present at the Citywest Reception Centre (formerly called the Citywest Hotel and Convention Centre) to make their application.”
Last night, some residents of Saggart were already claiming that the traffic of buses into Citywest had notably increased, an indication they believed of the diversion of newly arrived applicants for International Protection from what used to be their first port of call as the International Protection Office in Mount Street.
Not only has the Department decided to do that but it has also announced that “People in the asylum border procedure will be accommodated at Citywest Reception Centre until they receive a decision on their application.”
Although the Department, in a footnote to its press statement, claims that following an “initial screening process” which “will take a maximum of seven days,” that “people will be accommodated in other IPAS centres”, the local residents I have been in contact with have other concerns.
Chief of these concerns is that Citywest may be used as a detention centre for applicants. The Migration and Asylum Pact does contain provisions for the detention of persons who fail to satisfy entry conditions.
These are found in the Recast Reception Conditions Directive. Article 10 (4) and that provision has been incorporated into the International Protection Act which gives effect to the Pact in domestic law.
Part V, Chapter 3 of the Act contains those provisions and Section 111 covers quite a wide range of reasons why an applicant might be detained. These include verification of identity and nationality; to check other elements of the application; where there is a risk of absconding; if a person is already convicted of a criminal offence; is subject to a deportation order; and “protection of national security and order.”
So, if the Irish State is serious about cracking down on abuses then it will need greatly enhanced detention facilities given that we already know the huge proportion of persons who arrive here as asylum seekers who fail to present with proper or any documentation and more than 80% who are found not to satisfy either entry conditions or the criteria for being granted residency.
When Offaly Independent TD Carol Nolan asked Minister Jim O’Callaghan in April about the arrangements to detain such people, the Minister claimed that it would only be necessary in “certain limited and exceptional circumstances.”
As we know from the Department’s own statistics these would appear to be far from exceptional.
LOCALS FEAR DETENTION CENTRE IMPOSITION
O’Callaghan did not reply to Deputy Nolan’s question about a location for such a detention centre. The fear on the part of the people of Saggart is that Citywest might appear to be the obvious and most logical location for such a facility and those concerns have been heightened by yesterday’s redirection of applicants from the IPO office in Mount Street to Citywest.
In his statement today Minister Jim O’Callaghan claims that the commencement of the International Protection Act 2026 to give effect to the Migration and Asylum Pact “represents the most significant reform of Irish asylum laws in the history of the State,” and that the objective is to “provide a fair, sustainable and efficient asylum procedure that is consistent with how asylum laws operate across the EU.”
He stressed that this will include more rigorous screening with “enhanced security and identity checks and the taking of biometric data,” and that this will facilitate “faster processing, including an accelerated Border Procedure for some applicants, where all decisions and appeals will be concluded within 3 months.”
The specific Border Procedure that is now in force only applies to “applicants that are from a country where the proportion of decisions granting international protection is 20% or lower. It can also be used for applicants who are known to have misled authorities or to have destroyed or disposed of an identity or travel document.”
Given what we know of the statistics on those who have entered the State in the past – with another 12 – 13,000 on current levels likely in 2026 – the strict application of the criteria would entail either large numbers of refusals at point of entry or large numbers being effectively detained while their applications are assessed.
Already having had a massive accommodation centre planted in their midst – with all the associated dangers which have been well documented here and elsewhere – the last thing the people of Saggart need, or deserve, is the added imposition of the initial reception centre which adds significantly to the numbers arriving every day into Citywest. They also require urgent reassurance regarding its use as a possible detention centre.
