Close to 300 asylum seekers who presented themselves as children were subsequently determined to be adults over a four-year period, the Public Accounts Committee has been told.
Child and Family Agency Tusla disclosed in a briefing document to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee that between 2022 and 2025, a total of 2,530 unaccompanied young people seeking asylum were referred to the agency by immigration officials who believed them to be under the age of 18, reports Breaking News.
Of that total, 293 individuals were later found to be ineligible for Tusla’s services and were referred back to the International Protection Office. The agency noted in its submission that age assessment relating to unaccompanied minors has been a matter of “significant risk” for the organisation in recent years.
Tusla also highlighted that “there is no provision in law for Tusla to conduct age assessments,” a reality that has created considerable legal and operational difficulties for the agency, reports Breaking News.
Under the International Protection Act 2015, if an immigration official believes that an asylum seeker is under 18 and unaccompanied, they are legally obliged to refer that person to Tusla. From that point, the individual is presumed to be a child and must be accommodated in a registered children’s centre or an approved foster placement until a formal determination on their eligibility is completed.
The agency acknowledged that the assessment process had previously been taking close to two months to complete from initial referral to a final finding that an individual was not eligible for children’s services, reports Breaking News.
However, since January 2026, the International Protection Office, operating under the Department of Justice, has introduced more stringent age-screening procedures at points of entry ahead of the implementation of the EU Migration Pact in June 2026. These new checks have contributed to a marked drop in referrals and have shortened the average determination period to approximately 15 days.
Tusla reported that in the first quarter of 2026, it received 97 referrals — a significant decline from the 196 recorded in the final three months of 2025, reports Breaking News.
At the committee hearing, members expressed serious concern over the figures. Fine Gael TD Joe Neville described it as a disgrace that certain individuals had falsely presented as children, accusing them of “gaming the system” in the belief that doing so might entitle them to greater rights or benefits. His primary concern, he added, centred on the risk posed to genuine child asylum seekers in the system.
Committee Chairman John Brady raised questions about the constitutional basis of Tusla carrying out age assessments given that the agency has no legislative authority to do so, reports Breaking News.
In cases where an individual’s age remained disputed or where a decision was under appeal, Tusla said those persons are placed in either emergency accommodation or adult International Protection Accommodation Services facilities while awaiting a final ruling, rather than being housed in registered children’s centres. The agency stressed that this distinction was critical given the risks associated with accommodating adults in facilities designed for children and vice versa, reports Breaking News.
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