Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I share the concerns about, and condemnation of, the attacks about which we have heard in recent months.

In response to the Minister's opening statement, I welcome this debate. It is good that we are having it. I commend the Minister on the focus and urgency he has brought since his appointment in January. His approach has been, frankly, a breath of fresh air: practical, evidence-led and rooted in fairness to applicants and to communities alike. I echo his sentiments in respect of the rules-based system, which is essential.

Let us be honest about how we got here. After the Covid pandemic, international travel resumed, war returned to Europe and secondary movements across the EU accelerated. Ireland experienced a sharp surge in applications for international protection. To put the numbers on the record, there were 2,649 applications in 2021, 13,651 in 2022, 13,277 in 2023 and 18,561 in 2024, the highest on record. This year, to the end of August, there were 8,258 applications, which is down approximately 41% to 43% on the same period last year.

The causes are well-known and include the reopening of borders after the pandemic, conflict-driven displacement and the interplay of policies within the common travel area and across the EU. As the Minister noted, Ireland’s economic success has also acted as a magnet for skills and opportunity. This rapid growth put real pressure on the State. Accommodation costs in the international protection accommodation service have risen from €129.4 million in 2019 to a projected €1.3 billion in 2025. Nearly 33,000 people are accommodated across 320-odd sites across the country. That is a steep fiscal curve by any measure.

The decision to purchase Citywest Hotel, with a capacity of approximately 2,300, moves us from high-cost leasing to a State asset with an estimated payback of approximately four years and savings of €1 billion across 25 years, while enabling a 13-week end-to-end processing model on site. This is the right strategy. We need to move away from the private model.

We must also acknowledge the social impact. Trust in the system was damaged in parts of the country. Irish people are very generous, but we like to see things handled properly. I want to put on record my appreciation for officials working in extremely difficult circumstances. At the same time, there were cases where communications with communities and public representatives were poorly handled. We need to rebuild confidence by engaging earlier, sharing clear information and ensuring infrastructure and services are planned alongside accommodation decisions.

Since January, the Minister has set a different tone and delivered measurable change. Staffing at the International Protection Office has been scaled up from approximately 212 in 2022 to over 600 full-time equivalents this summer, driving more decisions and helping to reduce the backlog, as the Minister outlined earlier. A new immigration customer service portal has 145,000 registered users, 111,000 queries resolved and 60,000 registration appointments made, bringing transparency and basic customer service into a complex system. First-instance outcomes to 31 August 2025 resulted in 81.5% refusals and 18.5% grants, reflecting the mix of cases now being decided more quickly.

Crucially, enforcement credibility has been restored. Signed deportation orders are up this year to date and voluntary returns have increased with enhanced packages. There is stronger border control at Dublin Airport, with 4,154 doorstops to the end of August. The result is that applications are down over 40% in the year to date. That is cause and effect that people can see.

The public understand that no Government can turn on a dime, but they want proof that the wheel has been gripped and that the Government is in control. The figures I have cited demonstrate progress. We have further to go, and we will go further. On Europe, ultimately, Ireland cannot stand alone. A rules-based, shared system is the only sustainable path, as we have discussed in this Chamber over many months.

I travelled to Brussels earlier this year to raise and discuss these issues with Commissioner Michael McGrath.

I welcome the practical turn now under way via the EU migration and asylum pact and Ireland’s national implementation plan, approved on 25 March 2025.

The pact provides faster, fairer, more coherent processes across the EU, accelerated border procedures with three-month decision timelines, increased co-operation on returns, the use of safe-country and safe-third-country concepts, and better data-sharing to tackle abuse. Ireland will transpose this through the International Protection Bill 2025, which, among other changes, will reduce oral hearings at appeal while preserving the rights to be heard and to an effective remedy. The pact comes into effect in 2026, and our job is to be ready.

It is important also to note what the UN is saying. Just this morning, the UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection stated deportations are a “critical element” of a functioning asylum system. It is about a fair, efficient system people can trust.

Alongside protection, Ireland runs significant legal routes for those who come here to study, work and join family, as outlined earlier. In 2024, there were 60,901 student permissions. Visa and permission decisions exceeded 150,000. These routes are essential to our economy but we also need to be honest about capacity. Housing, schools, GP numbers and transport cannot expand by magic. As a small, open economy, we should prioritise sectors that are mission-critical to both competitiveness and community well-being, healthcare, elder care, and house building, in particular, so that migration actively helps us clear the most pressing bottlenecks.

The programme for Government commitments remain clear: reduce reliance on hotels; develop State-owned capacity; require contributions from applicants where appropriate, in respect of which I welcome the Minister’s commitment today; and where there is an unsuccessful application, the person must leave, as the Minister has outlined. That is the architecture of a system that is not just fair but also seen to be fair.

I will finish where I began. The Minister has set a clear direction and the early results are visible: more decisions, firmer enforcement, fewer unfounded applications and a pipeline of EU-level reforms that will standardise good practice across the EU. There is more to do – on appeals timelines, on integration pathways and on honest, two-way communication with host communities – but the ship is turning. In Ireland, people are very generous but we just like to see things handled properly. With this approach – faster, fairer, firmer – we can protect the integrity of the system, support those fleeing danger and give our communities confidence that migration is managed, not accidental.

I support the Minister’s programme and look forward to working with him and his colleagues across the House to deliver the reforms, capacity and clarity the public rightly expects.

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