The Justice Minister has stated his goal to reduce the number of asylum seekers entering Ireland to fewer than 10,000 per year. Jim O’Callaghan expressed concerns over the current high numbers, noting that more than 18,500 people applied for asylum in Ireland in 2024 alone.
Before the pandemic, Ireland typically received between 3,000 and 5,000 applications for international protection each year. However, this number dropped to between 1,500 and 2,600 in 2020 and 2021 before surging to more than 13,500 applications in both 2022 and 2023.
In addition to asylum seekers, over 114,000 people arrived in Ireland fleeing the war in Ukraine. This means that a total of approximately 159,000 people sought temporary or international protection in Ireland during the three-year period from 2022 to 2024.
Speaking to the Justice Committee on Tuesday, Mr. O’Callaghan described these numbers as creating a crisis. He said they threaten to overwhelm the capacity of the International Protection Office to process cases and place the State in a weak negotiating position. The government has needed to dramatically expand accommodation for both international protection applicants and Ukrainian arrivals.
Mr. O’Callaghan’s predecessor, Roderic O’Gorman, had anticipated that 15,000 asylum applications per year would become the new normal. However, Mr. O’Callaghan said, “I still think those numbers are too high.” He emphasized his intention to reduce the “eye-watering” expenditure on the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS).
Last year, just over €1 billion was spent on accommodating international protection applicants, with a budget of €1.2 billion allocated for 2024. The minister noted that the main driver of this spending is the number of people arriving who require accommodation.
“I think what we have seen in the years where there was a surge, 2022-2024, may have been a consequence of the Covid years where people didn’t come through,” he explained. “But I certainly want to see numbers under 10,000. It’s difficult for that to be controlled, but in terms of measures that I introduce, I think that is an effective way of trying to do it.”
Mr. O’Callaghan added, “The reason we spent one billion last year is because 33,000 people or so are being accommodated. So that’s the real driver of it. The way to respond to that is to get people through the system much faster, to have their applications processed so they’re not staying in an IPAS centre for one to three years. You want to get them in and out promptly over a period of months.”
Regarding the cost of accommodation, the minister said the department was paying an average of €84 per night per applicant last year but has since reduced this to €71. He was hesitant to publicize this reduction to avoid creating unrealistic expectations for future contract rates and emphasized his goal to lower the costs even further.
In other remarks, Mr. O’Callaghan revealed he had recently undergone a doorstep identification check after arriving on a flight. Between January and the end of August, 4,154 such checks had been conducted. He described these checks as effective in addressing cases of people arriving in Ireland without proper identification.
“It’s a lot like I was doorstepped myself recently coming off a flight,” he said.
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https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/ocallaghan-wants-fewer-than-10000-asylum-seekers-per-year-1810138.html