Council of the European Union Decision: Motions Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-29 ============================================================ Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South I dtús báire, gabhaim buíochas leis na Seanadóirí as a n-óráidí. D’éist mé leo go cúramach agus aontaím le go leor acu. I thank Senators for their contributions. I will try to respond to some of the issues raised. I thank Senator Gallagher for his comments and I agree that we should have a migration system that is fair but also firm. He commented on the co-operation with Nigeria, which we have good co-operation with, and asked what the number of applicants from Nigeria seeking international protection was this year. At present, Nigeria is number two on the list of those nationals seeking international protection in Ireland. This year, to date, there have been just over 1,100 applicants from Nigeria who have made applications in Ireland. As was pointed out by Senator Murphy, and as I have stated before, the significant majority of these applications are rejected at first instance. Indeed, when you look at them after appeal, the majority of them are rejected. I thank Senator Conway for his comments in respect of this being a judicious proposal and I agree that it is. He inquired about who was liable for the cost of persons being returned to another country, be that Nigeria or any other country. It is the deporting country that is liable for the cost, but we are very much dependent upon co-operation from the receiving country whose nationals are being removed back to that country. I am pleased with the co-operation we have had in the past and I believe we will get in the future from Nigeria. A flight was sent to Nigeria from Ireland in June of last year, which brought back 35 people. I think the cost was approximately €325,000. However, we are also now using Frontex, which is an EU-wide entity. Ireland is not a member of Frontex, but we are entitled to avail of its services. Recently, we have been availing of joint Frontex return operations, not just to Nigeria but also to other countries. Senator Murphy indicated that any decisions in respect of migration should be made by the Irish people. I agree entirely and that is what we are doing here. The elected people of Ireland and the Upper House are deciding whether we opt into this proposal. The only reason I am putting it forward is because I believe it is in the best interests of Ireland. In fact, we are able to do this without entering into this European-wide agreement because, as we know, a flight did go back to Nigeria from Ireland last June on a chartered plane. Those operations will continue to happen. However, the benefit of this agreement is that we will have even greater specificity between ourselves and Nigeria when it comes to that in the future. Senator Murphy also referred to the length of time for assessments. Historically, that was the case, but I am very pleased to say we are now seeing much faster processing of applications. Since the International Protection Act came into effect on 12 June, we have seen people who have come in under the border procedure having their applications processed within three months and their appeals dealt with. In fact, people who have made applications under the new system that I commenced on 12 June have now not only had their first instance decision heard and determined, but also their second instance appeal heard and determined. That is through the new body that has been set up, namely, the Tribunal for Asylum and Returns Appeals, TARA, which is the tribunal returns adjudication panel that is dealing with those. We are getting through the historic applications in terms of IPAS. It is essential, however, that if people bring an application for international protection, they are dealt with promptly. That is what is happening under the new scheme. I listened to Senator Higgins and her criticism of the EU. I have a different political perspective from her in respect of this. I think every country is entitled to protect its borders. It is not unique to Europe. African countries - Nigeria, for instance - are entitled to return people who are unlawfully present there to European Union countries. It works both ways. There have to be safeguards. In this instance, the only time an individual will be sent back to Nigeria is if, having claimed international protection, they have had that claim rejected and the appeal rejected and they have been served with a deportation order. That is the circumstance in which they will be returned. Similarly, somebody who does not go down the route of international protection but is a Nigerian citizen and has overstayed their visa can be sent back in that circumstance as well. It is a reasonable proposal for any country to say if there are persons there who are not entitled to be and have not been granted asylum, they are entitled to return them. That happens in most countries. We would create an untenable situation for ourselves if it was the case that we could not do anything in respect of people who have come here unlawfully. In that case, what would be the point of having the asylum processing system or visas? It would just be a free-for-all. That is not what the Irish people want. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-09-29/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-29