Photo credit: Irish Examiner
The International Protection Bill is described as the most radical reform of immigration law in the State’s history. It aims to bring Irish law in line with the EU Pact on Migration and asylum.
The Irish Times reports that the Opposition TDs are however critical of plans to guillotine the Bill on Wednesday without what they say is proper scrutiny of a number of provisions. Some of the points are:
1) Use of guideline: The Bill has been debated for eight hours at a committee stage, all in a single session in the Dial rather than att the Justice Committee where it would normally be considered. Out of almost 300 amendments submitted, just 15 amendments – including those ruled out of order – were dealt with.
There are four more hours of debate on Wednesday before the Bill is guillotined – with debate stopping after a strict Government deadline – and the Bill then moves to the Seanad. The issues and the timing have sparked Opposition anger, Social Democrats’ spokesman Gary Gannon says the Bill will likely be before the courts, facing a legal challenge, before the end of the year.
2) Legal advice: Applicants will have their case for asylum dealt with in 1`2 weeks but will have “legal counselling” rather than a lawyer at first interview. Opposition TDs argue this is not defined in the legislation with no guarantee on who provides it or what standards apply.
The Minister has suggested this could be a paralegal but Kelly said the reference to “counselling” was too vague – “it could be citizens’ advice, it could be TDs”.
3) Family reunification: Last year there were 669 family reunifications granted in the State. The Minister is expected to bring an amendment seducing his proposed waiting time from three years to two years for applicants granted leave to stay in Ireland to apply for family members to join them.
The Opposition is divided on this but “we won’t even get to debate it” before the legislation is guillotined on Wednesday, Gannon said.
4) The Common Travel Area: All opposition TDs criticized the lack of any substantive mention of the Common Travel Area between Ireland and the UK in the legislation.
Aontu leader Peadar Toibin said at least 85 percent of asylum seekers were coming from Britain through the North. A process has to be worked out with Britain that “when a person wants to apply for an application for asylum here in Ireland, they do so when they move to the island and vice versa because there are flows in both directions”.
5) Detention of children: The Opposition is united against the proposal permitting the detention of children in defined “last resort” circumstances for up to 12 hours and “in the best interests” of the minor.
The Bill has been criticized for failing to define what are the best interests of the child and opposition TDs said because the debate ends on Wednesday they will not get to consider the issue.
