Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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1338. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth her plans regarding the Programme for Government commitment that international protection applicants would be provided with accommodation with restrictions on their movement, specifically this new type of accommodation which would restrict applicants' movements; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11181/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland has opted in to the EU Asylum and Migration Pact, which will introduce a more comprehensive, streamlined, and efficient approach to asylum and migration both in Ireland and across the EU.

While this question may relate to international protection accommodation centres, matters relating to overall border security come under the domain of the Department of Justice.

The Department of Justice has provided information with respect to your question below:

Under the Pact there is a new mandatory border procedure, which will apply to people who have misled authorities (such as by destroying identity documents), who are a danger to national security or public order, or who come from countries with a 20% or lower approval rate for asylum applications across the EU. Their applications must be processed in full within three months, and if unsuccessful, they must be removed within a further three months.

The Pact provides that persons subject to the border procedure may be deemed, in legal terms, as not admitted to the Member State, notwithstanding the fact of their physical presence, until such time as their case is determined.

Applicants for international protection, including those arriving by air, land or sea will undergo screening that includes an identity check, a security check, a vulnerability assessment and a health assessment that will allow authorities to decide which pathway an applicant enters, i.e., accelerated procedure, border procedure, standard procedure or inadmissibility procedure.

It is anticipated that those people being processed through this screening process and those under the border procedure would be located in designated centres while their fast-track application is dealt with. There is also a duty on Member States to ensure that applicants do not abscond from the border procedure but this can be met by way of alternatives to detention in accordance with EU law and EUAA guidelines.

It should also be noted that, like any other EU legislative measure, the Pact was developed taking into account the fundamental rights of protection applicants. In addition, the Pact contains provisions that take into account the specific needs of the most vulnerable protection applicants, including children.

A cross-departmental Programme Board is overseeing the development of a national implementation plan for the EU Asylum and Migration Pact. The national implementation plan will set out the State’s proposed approach to meeting the requirements set out in the Migration Pact, which comes into effect from June 2026.

I trust the information provided is helpful.