Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Government should reconsider “opting out of the majority” of the controversial EU migration and asylum pact, an Oireachtas committee has recommended. The committee published its pre-legislative scrutiny of the International Protection Bill 2025 – the legislation to give effect to the pact – on Monday. Speaking in Dublin last week EU migration commissioner Magnus Brunner said Ireland is “very well” placed to adopt the pact. The report says Tusla “emphasised ... it is outside of its statutory remit to undertake age assessments” of unaccompanied asylum seeker children. The agency wanted “sight of the full statutory process” that would set out “how immigration authorities will undertake age assessments prior” to children being referred to it for care or accommodation.
