Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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A deportation order is a legal order to leave the State. Any person who has been ordered to leave the State and fails to do so is committing a criminal offence, and can be arrested without warrant if they come into contact with An Garda Síochána.

Section 3(11) of the Immigration Act 1999 provides that a deportation order may be revoked. The Department receives submissions from individuals seeking that this power be invoked in their case. In assessing such submissions consideration is given to whether there is compelling new information or material changes in circumstances which were not previously put forward, nor capable of being put forward, when the original decision was made.

By far the main grounds advanced relate to the extent to which an individual has established family, employment and other connections here. All submissions are carefully assessed including in the context of any rights arising and a criminal records check is carried out in each instance.

I am significantly increasing the level of investment into the international protection system. I have already doubled the number of staff in the international Protection Office, which has resulted in a corresponding trebling of the number of decision issued. The faster a decision can be reached in an international protection case, the easier it is to return those who are found not to have a right to protection.

The EU Migration and Asylum Pact will significantly improve processing times through the introduction legally binding timeframes for making decisions on applications.

The table below details the number of Deportation Orders which have been revoked since 2013. The number of cases since 2022 includes persons who qualified under the terms of the Regularisation of Long-Term Undocumented Migrants Scheme.

Year	Deportation Orders revoked
2013	308
2014	353
2015	482
2016	360
2017	165
2018	319
2019	346
2020	302
2021	231
2022	582
2023	416
2024 (To 14/05/2024)	102

* Please note, figures are correct at time of issue, however, all statistics may be subject to data cleansing.

** Number of deportation orders revoked may relate to orders issued in a previous year