Just over one-third of people issued with deportation orders were removed from the State last year.
Figures from Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald also show that Nigerians topped the list of nationalities for the number of its citizens deported from Ireland last year.
Chinese nationals, including those from Hong Kong were second followed by Ghanaians, Brazilians and in joint fifth position Albanians and South Africans.
The figures did not specify the number of citizens from each of those countries who were removed from the State last year but Ms Fitzgerald said 1,195 deportation orders were signed in 2016 and 428 people were deported.
To date this year, after one month, 61 deportation orders have been signed.
She told Fianna Fáil TD John Curran in a written parliamentary reply that the flight cost for the 428 deportations was €698,814.28.
Ms Fitzgerald said Ireland was obliged to manage immigration and “where appropriate, to deport people who do not have a right to be here”.
She stressed however that “a decision to deport a person is never taken lightly”.
Rule of law
The Tánaiste added that a deportation order “requires a person to remove themselves from the State and it is only where they fail to do so that the State is forced to remove them and enforce the rule of law”.
The Minister described the process leading to deportation as extensive with many avenues of appeal, including judicial review in the High Court and this was open to those subject to deportation orders.
Mr Curran, a former minister of state, noted the voluntary code of the deportation orders that the State would only remove those subject to deportation orders if they did not go voluntarily. But he said the number of deportations was just over one-third of the total number of deportation orders in place and he asked “what’s happening to all the other people in the system?”
The Dublin Mid-West TD pointed to the extensive process involved before deportation orders were signed. He asked, “Is the system in some part ineffective?”
