2024 saw a 40% increase in people from around the world applying for asylum in Ireland. A total of 18,561 people applied for international protection here last year – which is the highest annual number since records began.
The record-breaking figure, provided by the Department of Justice to Newstalk, is 36% higher than the previous peak recorded in 2022, when 13,651 international protection applications were lodged, representing a 186% increase from 2019 (the last comparable year before Covid). It is also 40% higher than in 2023, when the number fell very slightly to 13,276 applications.
It means that more than 45,000 people have applied for asylum in the State in the last three years alone. Currently, there are 3,099 international protection applicants who have not been offered accommodation as the government struggles amid an unprecedented housing crisis. Asylum applications have risen by 300% compared to the same period five years ago.
The number coincides with some estimates made during 2024. In April, the chair of the Public Accounts Committee estimated that the number of people arriving in Ireland seeking asylum, also known as international protection (IP), was likely to reach 20,000. It came as a meeting with Department of Integration Officials heard that the number of asylum seekers entering the State during the first three months of 2024 was up to 75 per cent higher than in the same period in 2023.
“If it continues at this pace we are looking at 20,000, which is a dramatic increase,” Mr Stanley said at the time. “A few short years ago it was 3,000.”
“If there was a dip in State revenues and in the economy this could start causing problems – trying to find funding of €2 billion to €3 billion a year for this,” Mr Stanley told the committee.
The meeting heard that more than €2 billion was paid to private companies and individuals providing accommodation in 2023, with some €1.49 billion was paid for former hotels, guest houses and other buildings to accommodate Ukrainian refugees, and an additional €640 million paid to private operators in respect of IP applicants.
It comes as it was revealed at the end of December that just 6% of the 2,400 deportation orders issued to those here illegally were enforced or confirmed last year. This was an increase of more than 150% in one year. Only 129 of those people (just over 6%) are confirmed to have since left Ireland.
The government has pledged to begin chartered deportation flights in the coming months to hasten the pace of deportations.