TDs have hit out at the “belated” acknowledgement by the government that most asylum applications are not valid, with one Independent TD saying our “asylum policy must change from treasure island to fortress Ireland.”
Offaly TD Carol Nolan has described confirmation from the Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan that 65 per cent of all 14,000 international protections applications were rejected in 2024 as evidence of “an all-out co-ordinated assault on the integrity of the asylum process by those who want to milk the state dry of economic and social resources without any consideration of what it is doing to the social or financial fabric of the country.”
Deputy Nolan said the minister’s additional statement that 80 per cent of applications for international protection were rejected in January of 2025 was “a shock to no-one and one that could have been anticipated by anyone from Donegal to Offaly, to the midlands and right down to the ends of Cork and Kerry who was not blinkered by an NGO mindset which has idealised all applicants as apparently incapable of telling of a lie or of entering the country under false pretences.
“The only ‘bad’ people in this country for the last number of years have been those who have highlighted this problem, not those who caused it. This is absurd,” she said.
“While I welcome the willingness of Minister O’Callaghan to be so forthright on this issue; the fact remains that many of us have been shouting about this for years and have been described as threats to social cohesion for doing so,” said Deputy Nolan.
“We also know, despite the ministers belated acknowledgement, that Ireland will continue to see tens of thousands of people arriving here essentially to exploit our lax and magnetic asylum process which ensures that once you get through Dublin airport or any other port you are effectively here for life with all the benefits that come with that.”
“We need to put this issue on a war footing. Our economy is being drained of billions to accommodate a majority of people who have no right to be here,” the Independent TD said.
“We are handing over hundreds of millions to individual private contractors within a system that is plagued by unadulterated greed. The perception is very much out there that some of these people do not care what happens to a local community as long as they can make and take a few million from the department every month.”
“We need to definitively end the perception of our country as treasure island and move to a fortress Ireland approach instead with respect to all those who want to take advantage of our generosity. For goodness’ sake, we are still not even asking those in IPAS accommodation and who work full time or who are self-employed to contribute a cent to their costs, as I revealed last year through a series of parliamentary questions.”
“We need a radical and immediate crack down on this problem and we need it now, not in a few years’ time when tens of thousands more will have walked through what is effectively an open door to access the limited resources of the state,” concluded Deputy Nolan.
Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath was also critical of what he described as the Cabinet’s “belated realisation that most asylum applications were not, in fact, valid, and that local communities across Ireland were being upset and disrupted to facilitate people who were making asylum claims that were rejected.”
“For years, those of us who pointed out that thousands of people were arriving here from safe countries and claiming asylum were shouted down. Simon Harris said it was ‘Trumpian’ of me to criticise the media for refusing to debate the immigration issue honestly,” he said.
At the time of the exchange, Deputy McGrath accused the government of only choosing to address the issue of migration because tents had “arrived in the leafy suburbs of Dublin 4.”
“Now, we’re seeing Cabinet members acknowledge that what we said previously wasn’t “racist” – it was the truth. But we need action, not words, to sort out this mess,” Deputy McGrath said. “What’s the point in the Minister recognising that the asylum claims are being rejected if those who are making those claims are still here years later, even indefinitely it seems.”