Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 14 October 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration

General Scheme of the International Protection Bill 2025: Discussion

2:00 am

Ms Lorna Kavanagh:

Currently, up to half are Ukrainian. It was around a third for a long time, but the number of Ukrainian arrivals increased during the summer. Following Ukraine, Somalia and Afghanistan are the countries that are represented most. We have seen a slight increase in arrivals from Vietnam. We do not know what that is about because there had not been arrivals from Vietnam in a very long time. The remainder of the young people are from 20 or so other countries, such as Congo, Egypt, Eritrea and Pakistan.

In terms of the ages, the vast majority of children who arrive are 17 years of age. Some 316 children are aged 17, 127 are 16 and we have 36 15-year-olds. The percentage of children aged between seven and 14 is in single figures. The youngest child we have in our care today is seven years old. That is the age range. The youngest child did not arrive unaccompanied, but------

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