Over the past 18 months, how to respond to the growing number of people seeking refugee status in Ireland has become a “ratchet” policy area for the Coalition and also for Sinn Féin.
Twenty years ago it was crime where parties tried to outbid each other on being “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”.
Now, there are clear policy signals from both the Coalition and the main Opposition party of an intent to implement a system that is “robust, fair, firm and enforced”, as Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan has put it. In other words, a much tougher and restrictive system to process international protection applications.
There is already some data to support it. Deportation orders have tripled since the start of the year compared with 2024. The number of applications for asylum refused has shot up. In 2022, 29 per cent were refused. That rose sharply to 63 per cent in 2023; 72 per cent in 2024; and a staggering 81 per cent to date this year.
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February also saw the first deportation charter flight since before the Covid pandemic. It flew from Dublin to Tbilisi carrying 32 Georgian nationals. The charter cost more than €100,000, or €3,000 per passenger. But O’Callaghan has signalled that despite the high costs it is an instrument he is prepared to use.
“The removal of persons who have been refused permission to remain is an essential requirement for the immigration system to work effectively and to ensure that the public has confidence in the application of our laws in this area,” he has said.
The numbers seeking asylum remained consistently low for almost 20 years. In 2021 only 2,649 people applied for international protection in Ireland. However, that shot up in subsequent years, to 13,651 in 2022, 13,277 in 2023 and 18,561 in 2024.
The dovetailing of that increase with a huge influx of refugees fleeing Ukraine led to an accommodation crisis and the introduction of unpopular stopgap measures such as using hotels and other centres to accommodate them, leading to protests. It has become an increasingly significant political issue in Ireland over the last two years.
During the general election campaign, Mr O’Callaghan was very critical of the record of Fine Gael ministers for justice.
However, the substantial fall in applications in early 2025 can be attributed partly to policies introduced by his predecessor Helen McEntee, particularly the decision to fast-track applications from citizens who come from countries of origin deemed to be safe.
[ Deportation orders triple as Government signals tougher line on asylumOpens in new window ]
These applications should be processed within three months. When the overall numbers ballooned last year, Ms McEntee added the two countries with the highest number of applicants to the fast-track list.
The impact of that policy was evident almost immediately. After Jordan was added to the list in September 2024, the average number of applicants fell from 500 a month to an average of 37 per month. The number of applications from Nigerian citizens has also fallen by two-thirds since 2024.
However, the Government has made immigration a central policy plank of its programme. Responsibility for the areas has transferred from the Department of Children to the Department of Justice.
O’Callaghan has signalled a legislative response including a new Bill which he says will be the most significant reform of the asylum system in the history of the State.
Much of the focus has now been on reducing the time it takes for applications to be fully determined. In some cases in the past it took more than a decade for a case to be fully determined. O’Callaghan has said he wants applicants from the 17 countries subject to fast-track procedures to have their first-instance decision, and their appeal, heard within three months.
At present, the first decision must be taken within three months, whereas the appeal can take 15 months or more to be completed. Two-thirds of those refused in the first instance take an appeal.
Sinn Féin’s immigration policies have also toughened considerably, partly in response to the protests over accommodation centres last year, where the party found itself the subject of criticism from a section of its support base.
It has also taken a much harder line against the subvention of €600 a month (formerly €800) paid to homeowners who accommodate refugees from Ukraine.
Its justice spokesman Matt Carthy believes the main failure is the length of time it takes to arrive at a final decision.
“We need to see much greater resources, more investment to deal with the appeals mechanism in particular, which is the source of a lot of the delays.
“In respect of the accommodation system itself, I fear that if there is an uptick in arrivals, the system is going to become overwhelmed very quickly. We could easily see some of the issues returning where local communities find out overnight that a local amenity is being turned into an emergency accommodation centre.”
But for some Opposition politicians, both the Government parties and Sinn Féin are pandering to populist sentiment.
Sinéad Gibney of the Social Democrats has said there is a need for a rules-based system that respects people’s rights to seek asylum. She criticised the increasingly restrictive measures and said they could lead to more illegal entry, as has happened elsewhere.
“If people know that they’re going to face the potential of the border, they’re going to find other ways to come into all countries,” she said.
Gibney criticised the premise of the arguments used. “The implication is that we’re taking in more than our fair share: that’s the term that’s often used.
“In fact we are not taking in any more than is equivalent to our counterparts across EU member states. And for a long, long time we were well below that number,” she said.
“We have an ageing population. We need people to come into our country for economic reasons, for labour market reasons.”
