Information supplied to a Gript reader in response to a Freedom of Information request shows that the number of deportation orders revoked by the Minister for Justice between the beginning of 2021 and August 16 this year amounted to over 61% of the total number of deportation orders issued over the same period.
Over that period the Department of Justice issued 2,384 deportation orders but 1,456 orders were revoked by the Minister. All of the orders revoked during the period were not issued between 2021 and 2024 but they reflect the high likelihood that an order will be revoked when appealed.
| Year | Number of Deportation Orders Issued |
| 2021 | 31 |
| 2022 | 270 |
| 2023 | 935 |
| 2024 up to 16 August 2024 | 1148 |
| Total | 2384 |
| Year | Number of Deportation Orders Revoked |
| 2021 | 233 |
| 2022 | 584 |
| 2023 | 417 |
| 2024 up to 16 August 2024 | 222 |
| Total | 1456 |
In the reply the Department states that:
Under Section 3(11) of the Immigration Act 1999, the Minister may revoke a deportation order. Deportation orders are revoked as a result of significant changes in the personal circumstances of the recipient, since the deportation order was signed, which justified the revocation of the deportation order.
Statistics on the number of deportation orders that had to be enforced through escort by members of the Garda National Immigration Bureau would indicate that only a very small number of those who are ordered to leave the state are physically seen to have done so under the supervision of officers of the state.
Just 152 escorted deportations are recorded in the information supplied as having taken place between the start of 2021 and August last. Again, while all of the escorted deportations did not involve persons ordered to leave within the same period, they only account for 6.4% of the overall number of deportation orders issued in that timeframe.
| Year | Number of Escorted Deportations by GNIB |
| 2021 | 5 |
| 2022 | 26 |
| 2023 | 52 |
| 2024 up to 16 August 2024 | 69 |
| Total | 152 |
The current Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, has several times referred to persons who have been issued with a deportation order who she claims have voluntarily left the jurisdiction. There appears to be no hard statistics with regard to the numbers of those who have left under their own steam and indeed it is difficult to know how any accurate information might be ascertained with regard to people whose departure is left to their own devices.
Gript has referred to a case in which a former prisoner, Chico Makamda, who had served a sentence for a serious sexual offence had clearly not complied with an order to leave the state. His deportation order was a condition of his release in January 2022 but he ignored this and was present in the state for a considerable period after his release from Midlands Prison.
In fact Makamda was only deported in June this year. To compound matters it had transpired that he was not even from Angola as he had apparently claimed but from the Democratic Republic of Congo to which he was deported. The state took no chances on that occasion as he was escorted personally by officers of the GNIB.