Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 January 2026
741. Deputy James Geoghegan asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration further to Parliamentary Question No. 714 of 16 December 2025, if the information requested can be provided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4156/26]
View answerAs previously advised, the specific type of data relating to judicial review cases concerning age assessment is not recorded in departmental records in a manner that can be readily extracted. Judicial review cases concerning potential, or actual, unaccompanied minors may involve issues in addition to age assessment. This may result in the proceedings being comprised of multiple claims, respondents and requested reliefs; the manual examination of a large number of departmental files would be required to ensure that a comprehensive answer to the range of questions raised by the Deputy could be provided.
However, as previously noted, officials from within my Department have engaged with their counterparts in the Chief State Solicitors' Office (CSSO) with a view to determining whether further detail may be available from the CSSO’s internal recording systems.
I can now confirm that, having reviewed their records, the CSSO have identified the file listed in the table below in which the question of age assessment within the context of International Protection has been a germane issue and in which the Minister for Justice was named as either a Respondent or Notice Party to the proceedings (as indicated in the table). My officials are informed that an additional level of detail beyond that contained below is not readily available at this time.
|
Year |
No. of cases |
Status of Minister for Justice as a party to the proceedings
|
|
2025 |
2 |
1 in which Minister is Respondent 1 in which Minister is Notice Party |
|
2024 |
2 |
2 in which Minister is Respondent |
|
2023 |
4 |
4 in which Minister is Respondent |
|
2022 |
4 |
4 in which Minister is Respondent |
|
2021 |
0 |
|
Finally, as the Deputy will be aware there are also cases where Tusla is the respondent and there may also be cases where the Minister has neither been named as a respondent nor as a notice party to the proceedings.
