A reply to a Dáil question from Independent TD for Offaly, Carol Nolan, would suggest that one of the main rationales for adopting the EU Migration and Asylum Pact is rather weaker than has been claimed.
This comes as Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan yesterday announced that the International Protection Bill had been approved by the Houses of the Oireachtas. This will give effect to the Pact in Irish law.
Deputy Nolan asked the Minister if “his Department or any other agencies under the aegis of his Department have made arrangements for the detention of persons arriving in the State for the purpose of applying for International Protection but who do not fulfil entry conditions.”
She also asked if they were prepared “for the detention of persons arriving in the State who do not fulfil entry conditions after the Migration and Asylum Pact comes into effect on 12 June 2026,” and if “a specific location has been selected for the detention of persons” who do not fulfil entry requirements.
The State itself has several times recognised that at least 80% of persons who arrive to claim International Protection are found not to have valid grounds, and that the great majority of such entrants produce either no documentation or false documentation. Therefore, the promise that the Pact will help to tackle that problem requires specific measures in order to do so.
In his response, Minister O’Callaghan noted that the International Protection Bill will, having been passed, give substance to the Pact that comes into effect on June 12. Among the measures proposed in the Bill which are noted by the Minister are “the use of detention [but] only in certain exceptional and limited circumstances.”
Those exceptional circumstances would appear not to include the deceptive means used by the vast majority of entrants as the Minister makes it clear that “The grounds for detention do not include or allow for the detention of an applicant for international protection solely on the basis that he or she does not fulfil conditions for entry to the State.”
The Minister made no reply to Deputy Nolan’s question as to whether a “specific location” had been identified for use as a detention centre.
None of the Minister’s response provides any reassurance that the Pact, as enacted and enforced through Irish legislation, will do anything to tackle the problem of illegal immigration. Given the continued arrivals of large numbers – projected at the end of March to reach around the 13,000 who applied in 2025 – it is a problem that appears to be increasing rather than diminishing.
Indeed, the fear expressed by critics of the Pact is that it will lead to greater numbers if the ‘solidarity’ measures are enforced which will in effect mean that all EU states will have to take a quota. The size of that quota will be dependent on the overall numbers who do manage to enter the EU, and that is unpredictable amid the current conflicts and volatility in the middle east and elsewhere.
Detention of bogus applicants under the provision of the Migration and Asylum Pact will be guided by the EU Recast Reception Conditions Directive. Article 10 (4) of the Directive allows for detention on the basis so that a person’s identity can be verified. That appears to contradict the Minister’s reference to the non-fulfilment of entry conditions.
Given that this is a particular problem here in the light of the absence of or false documentation there is surely more than “limited grounds” for the use of detention. Something that would speed up the process of assessment and deportation.
In his welcome for the Bill, Minister for State, Colm Brophy. claimed that it would speed up the assessment process. That would hardly be assisted if the subject of the assessment is potentially in a location unknown to the State.
There is also provision for the detention of persons “where there is a risk of absconding;” where applicants have failed to comply with other conditions or where they are already subject to a return and removal process, and where there are issues around national security.
The prevalence of the absence and abuse of documentation here would in itself suggest that the grounds for detention are by no means as “exceptional and limited” as claimed by Minister O’Callaghan.
Of course all things related to illegal immigration here are subject to the vagaries of the political system and while Part 5 of the Bill as passed by the Dáil outlines the detailed procedures of accelerated assessment that can take place while the applicant is being detained, the briefing from the Oireachtas Library on the Bill makes that far more vague and tenuous.
It notes that while:
“Some commentators have expressed concerns that the Pact could permit the detention of asylum seekers in practice, contrary to their rights to liberty and freedom of movement,” and that “the Department of Justice confirmed that it is exploring alternatives to detention.”
Which begs the question as to what alternatives there might be where a person who arrives here – as do at least 80% of those who apply for International Protection – with no means to determine how they even entered the jurisdiction and/or no means to even determine who they are.
That is a rhetorical question because we know what the alternatives are. They are that in almost every single case where a person arrives into the Irish state they are simply registered and allowed to go on their way. Most of them then become clients of the IPAS system and dependents on the seemingly inexhaustible largesse and good will of the Irish taxpayer.
If the Migration and Asylum Pact as transposed into Irish domestic law was meant to tackle that problem, then it would appear that such confidence has been misplaced if the utterances of the Minister responsible for its implementation are anything to go by.
Not least the fact that Minister O’Callaghan has stated in his reply to Deputy Nolan that failure to comply with the conditions for entering the state – as specifically defined to include failure to produce proper and verified identification – will not be grounds for detaining anyone while their application is assessed.
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