Analysis of the International Protection Bill 2025 provided for the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration on the International Protection Bill 2025.
The International Protection Bill 2025 is intended to transpose the EU Migration and Asylum Pact into Irish law by June 2026. As indicated to the Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration on 14 October 2025, the Commission has significant concerns about human rights and equality issues raised by the General Scheme. Recent engagement with the Department, including the Department’s comments at the Justice Committee, has not allayed those concerns.
Our analysis indicates that the Bill, in its current form, goes further than required by the Pact in restricting the rights of international protection applicants, and not as far as the Pact allows in protecting them.
We anticipate that this will likely lead to significant legal challenges.
In the briefing below, we detail our primary concerns and provide clear recommendations for amending the Bill to ensure compliance with Ireland's human rights and equality obligations.