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The Minister for Justice has doubled down on a law that prohibits the publication of a person’s status as an asylum claimant in Ireland even if that person has been charged or convicted of a serious crime, saying he and his officials are “legally obliged” to ensure that this information is “kept confidential”.
Independent Ireland TD for Cork North-Central, Ken O’Flynn, asked Minister Jim O’Callaghan if his department would consider making an amendment to Section 26 of the International Protection Act 2015, which prohibits the reporting of a person’s asylum status, rendering it an offence for a journalist to identify even a convicted criminal as an asylum seeker.
Deputy O’Flynn also asked if the Department of Justice had commissioned a review or assessment of the interaction between Section 26 of the International Protection Act 2015 and public confidence in the reporting of criminal proceedings.
In answer, the Minister stated that “An asylum-seeker’s claim inherently supposes a fear of persecution by the authorities of their home country and therefore may also mean that their family or friends still living in the country from which they have sought protection can be jeopardised if their personal information is not confidential.”
He added that “[M]y officials and I are legally obliged to ensure that the identity of any person who applied for international protection is kept confidential.”
The Minister further stated that “The confidentiality requirements contained in both Acts apply to all international protection applicants, including those charged or convicted of criminal offences. This does not mean that cases cannot be covered by the media, but rather that it must be covered in a manner that does not lead to the person being identified as an applicant for international protection. An applicant can themselves consent to being so identified.”
As Gript has previously reported, Irish journalists, when covering a story which features a person who is an international protection applicant, must choose whether to name the person or whether to report on the story featuring an anonymous asylum seeker.
The law prohibits the publication of the full facts of the case, in other words, the naming of the person alongside the fact that he or she is an asylum applicant.
This has led to a situation, as we recently saw, in which some stories a newspaper publishes name the person and give their details, whilst others strip out the name but mention that they are an asylum seeker.
“It is a central priority of this Government that our immigration laws are robust and enforced. Since taking office, I have worked to ensure integrity, efficiency and public confidence in our migration system,” the Minister said.
“Nothing in the International Protection legislation prevents An Garda Síochána communicating information in the course of an investigation, including personal details of a person where necessary, so long as they have due regard to the requirement not to publish information likely to lead members of the public to identify that person as an international protection applicant without the consent of that person.”
The Minister explained that “The confidentiality principle is a principle of asylum law which is reflected both in the Asylum Procedures Regulation and in our domestic law, the International Protection Act 2015, which applies to asylum applications made before 12th June 2026, and the International Protection Act 2026, which applies to applications made after that date.
For applicants whose applications were made prior to 12th June 2026, Section 26(1) of the 2015 Act sets out that:
“The Minister and the Tribunal and their respective officers shall take all practicable steps to ensure that the identity of applicants is kept confidential”.
As regards applications made after 12th June 2026, Article 7 of the Asylum Procedures Regulation states that
“1. The authorities applying this Regulation shall be bound by the principle of confidentiality in relation to any personal information they acquire in the performance of their duties, including any exchange of information in accordance with Union or national law which is relevant for the application of this Regulation between authorities of the Member States.
(a) disclose information regarding the individual application for international protection or the fact that an application has been made, to the alleged actors of persecution or serious harm;
(b) obtain any information from the alleged actors of persecution or serious harm in a manner that would result in such actors being informed of the fact that an application has been made by the applicant in question.”
In line with this, section 278(1) of the International Protection Act 2026 (in similar terms to section 26 of the 2015 Act) provides that:
“A person shall not publish or broadcast, or cause to be published or broadcast, information likely to lead members of the public to identify that a person is an applicant without the consent of that person”.
A person who contravenes this section themselves commits an offence.
The statement concluded: When processing international protection applications, criminal convictions are always considered. As part of this, character and conduct checks are carried out before applicants can be granted any permission to remain in the State.
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