Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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239. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the powers he has to issue removal orders to EU citizens who have been convicted of criminal acts or any other reasons; the number of such removal orders that have been issued in each year since 2019–2024, and to date in 2025, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55876/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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The removal of people who are involved in criminality and those who are a danger to society is a priority for me as Minister and my Department works closely with An Garda Síochána and the Irish Prison Service to ensure high risk persons are prioritised for removal from Ireland.

I can advise the Deputy that on Monday 13 October 2025, removal orders were enforced against 23 Romanian citizens who were removed from Ireland by charter flight. These orders were made in accordance with the Free Movement Directive (Directive 2004/38/EC), on grounds of criminality and re-entry bans of up to 10 years have been applied to prevent their return to Ireland. So far in 2025, 22 individuals have been removed from Ireland under the Directive on commercial airlines, this operation brings the total number of such removals to 45.

Under the European Communities (Free Movement of Persons) Regulations 2015, which transposes the Free Movement Directive (Directive 2004/38/EC) into Irish law, order can be made for both the removal and exclusion of citizens of the European Union, European Economic Area and Switzerland or their family members who represent a danger to public policy or public security. These orders can be made on the grounds of that the individual’s personal conduct represents a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat affecting one of the fundamental interests of society.

A removal order means the person must leave Ireland and if an exclusion order is made a re-entry ban can be imposed for a specified period, of up to ten years.

The table below details the number of orders which have been made under the European Communities (Free Movement of Persons) Regulations 2015 in 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 to 13 October 2025.

*(to 13/10/2025)

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