There has been a significant increase in the number of persons who, having being granted asylum, have also been approved for bringing family members to Ireland under the Family Reunification process in the period from 2019-2024.
The figures released by the Minister for Justice today on foot of a Parliamentary Question also gave the total of persons approved for Family Reunification to 7th May 2025.
The table shows that while 265 people were approved for Family Reunification in 2019, that figure had more than tripled by 2024 when 983 such approvals were made. The number of approvals jumped from 196 to 484 (increasing by a multiple of 2.5) between 2021 and 2021, with another jump between 2023 and 2024 from 407 approvals to 983.
Independent TD Carol Nolan has asked the Minister for Justice to outline the current national policy in relation to family reunification for those granted asylum; the degree of familial relationship to which the policy applies; and the number of individuals who have come to Ireland following the granting of such applications, from 2019 to date in 2025.
In reply, the Minister said that “family reunification as provided for in Section 56 of the International Protection Act 2015, allows people granted International Protection status to apply for certain family members to join them in the State.”
“An application for family reunification must be made by the sponsor within 12 months of them being granted an International Protection permission, and is subject to the provisions of the International Protection Act 2015,” he added.
The 2015 Act defines “member of the family” as:
(a) where the sponsor is married, his or her spouse (provided that the marriage is subsisting on the date the sponsor made an application for international protection in the State),
(b) where the sponsor is a civil partner, his or her civil partner (provided that the civil partnership is subsisting on the date the sponsor made an application for international protection in the State),
(c) where the sponsor is, on the date of the application under subsection (1) under the age of 18 years and is not married, his or her parents and their children who, on the date of the application under subsection (1), are under the age of 18 years and are not married, or
(d) a child of the sponsor who, on the date of the application under subsection (1), is under the age of 18 years and is not married.
In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that two refugees who became Irish citizens were entitled to seek enhanced family reunification rights under the Refugee Act 1996, which had been replaced by the International Protection Act 2015, which narrowed family reunification rights.
In his ruling, Mr Justice John MacMenamin found that the fact that two women, from Somalia and Uzbekistan, became Irish citizens did not deprive them of the right to apply for family reunification.
Mr Justice MacMenamin said that the Somali woman had been granted refugee status in 2008, and that prior to becoming an Irish citizen in 2013, she had got permission for her children, her mother and her wards to join her in this country.
After re-establishing contact with her husband in late 2016, she sought family reunification in respect of him under the 1996 Act but was refused on grounds of her Irish citizenship.
The second woman, aged in her 40s, got refugee status here in 2009 and citizenship in 2012 but was refused family reunification rights under section 18 for her eldest daughter and two grandchildren due to her citizenship, the Irish Times reported.