Asylum seekers could face restrictions on their movement, having to report regularly to authorities and possible detention in their accommodation centres, under a migration regime due to come into force next year.
The plan for implementing the EU Migration and Asylum Pact – approved by the government last year – was published on Wednesday by the Department of Justice and has been submitted to the European Commission.
Most of the pact measures will apply in respect of international protection applications lodged from June 12th, 2026, with other measures to apply from July 1st next year.
It commits to processing all asylum applications within six months, with those from designated “safe countries” to be handled inside 12 weeks and others in as little as two months.
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There will be “designated reception centres”, which will be regarded legally as “border locations”, where initial screening of applicants will be completed within seven days. This will include taking fingerprints, including from children, and entering applicants’ details on to the new EU-wide Eurodac IT system for monitoring of all asylum applicants’ movements.
It is understood there will be up to six such “reception centres”, though locations are not yet known. These centres will be “one-stop shops with multidisciplinary teams on site”, the plan states.
Applicants may register an application digitally, receive legal advice, undergo a vulnerability assessment and health check, and undergo an interview for a first-instance decision and appeal in the same location within a new statutory time frame, the plan outlines. Applicants will then be moved to longer-term accommodation while their cases are processed.
“The pact sets out clear requirements for certain applicants to reside in particular areas or accommodation centres, and to report to the authorities regularly,” the plan states.
Where detention is used “as a last resort”, it will be managed through An Garda Síochána and the Irish Prison Service.
The International Protection Office, located on Lower Mount Street in Dublin, will be replaced with “a new institutional arrangement”.
The current international protection decision process will be replaced by a “streamlined single first-instance decision” on refugee status, subsidiary protection, and return/permission to stay followed by a single appeal to cover refugee status, subsidiary protection, and return/permission to stay, it states.
Those whose applications are refused will have just one opportunity to appeal. A new appeal structure will replace the current International Protection Appeals Tribunal (Ipat), with it envisaged that the one appeal opportunity includes an appeal of a return decision, if one is issued, the plan states.
The Department of Justice and the Legal Aid Board are analysing how to restructure the provision of information, legal advice and legal representation to meet the requirements of the pact, it adds.
The plan states that the “protection of fundamental rights will be at the forefront” of Ireland’s implementation of the pact and that a mechanism for monitoring these will be established.
Additional staffing costs for the first year are envisaged to be €32 million, bringing the total staff cost to some €117 million.
“The proposed set-up costs of infrastructure in keeping with the State’s accommodation strategy of 14,000 State-owned beds is €875 million, with an indicative annual running cost of €725 million,” it says.
Applications submitted until June 12th, 2026, will continue to be dealt with under the current system and will not be transferred to the new system entering into force then.
