In a response to a Parliamentary Question from Independent TD Carol Nolan yesterday, the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, has stated that there are approximately 500 persons who have been issued with deportation orders who are “residing in IPAS accommodation.”
Presumably the smarter ones have gone to ground.
Deputy Nolan had asked the Minister to outline “the way in which his Department ensures that people who are the subject of deportation orders are removed from IPAS accommodation to which they are not entitled.”
Whatever way it is, one might surmise that it is not very efficient.
The Minister claimed that “The number of people resident in the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) centres who have been refused permission to remain in the State is a small proportion of our total resident population of nearly 33,000 people.
“Currently, there are approximately 500 people subject to deportation orders residing in IPAS accommodation. This number fluctuates regularly as people leave Ireland under the relevant return pathways, and as new orders are made.”
Minister O’Callaghan then explained the various reasons why such chaps are able to avoid having their collars felt and marched off by the Garda National Immigration Bureau to the airport and sent back to whence they came. The reasons being:
“Some people subject to deportation orders may have the enforcement of their order suspended due to legal proceedings or due to personal circumstances such as health grounds. Others will be in the process of arranging to leave the State as directed.”
And if all else fails, “My Department works closely with the Garda National Immigration Bureau to arrange for the removal of persons subject to deportation orders.”
Of course, when they do actually carry out the small number of deportations that are executed as a proportion of those that have been issued then you may be sure that you will hear about it in a press release.
Carol Nolan responded to the reply by stating that “If 500 tenants in local authority accommodation were found to have no right to their accommodation, they would be out on their ear or before the courts by month’s end.
“But when it comes to illegal residents, who have no right to be here, who have deportation orders against them, the situation is very different. I am sick and tired of the double standards that exist with respect to the obligations imposed on people in this state.”
According to figures which we have reported on regularly over the years, there have been approximately 15,000 deportation orders issued since 2000. The latest figure for 2025 is of 3,110 orders issued to the end of June. In the same period there have been 1,015 deportation orders carried into effect.
Proportionately then – because not all those who were deported were removed following orders issued in the same period – that amounts to one third of the number of deportation orders issued.
That is both higher for the first time than the EU average of 27%, and a significantly higher proportion than over the period since 2000 which is around 2,500 or just 17%. There is no definite figure on the number of people who have left voluntarily but Department of Justice and Eurostat figures estimate that approximately 2,800 have done so.
The Department of Justice has claimed that the number of voluntary returns is also substantially up, at 903 according to official numbers for 2024 and around 900 up to the end of September. Which if confirmed would still mean that around 9,700 or 65% of people ordered to leave since 2000 are possibly still here.
We know that some are still here existing in a limbo of endless appeals and just not being bothered anymore by The Man. Some presumably are part of the approximately 5,000 granted an amnesty under former Justice Minister Helen McEntee’s 2022 amnesty.
Meanwhile 500 of those with deportation orders are still living at your expense in IPAS accommodation. At least they should be easy to find unlike the thousands of others, if anyone is of a mind to hire the planes and carry out what the State has mandated them to.