{"id":194304,"date":"2025-12-16T07:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T07:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/194304\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T07:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T07:31:09","slug":"high-asylum-seeker-numbers-are-a-threat-to-social-cohesion-says-jim-ocallaghan-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/194304\/","title":{"rendered":"High asylum seeker numbers are a threat to \u2018social cohesion\u2019, says Jim O\u2019Callaghan \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fears about \u201ca breakdown in social cohesion\u201d are prompting the Government to seek to reduce the number of people coming to Ireland to seek asylum, the Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> has said.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan also signalled likely future reductions in the number of foreign students permitted to come to Ireland to learn English. <\/p>\n

In an interview with The Irish Times Inside Politics podcast, Mr O\u2019Callaghan said that he wanted to be \u201ccareful\u201d talking about immigration.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jim O’Callaghan: We made a bad decision on the presidency <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have to be frank about it as well. Like, it\u2019s a fine aspiration to say … we can welcome into Ireland everyone who wants to claim asylum. I can\u2019t. That\u2019s not realistic. And I have to be careful that the numbers, which were exceptionally high last year \u2212 18,500 people arrived last year \u2212 that those numbers are reduced as otherwise, we will have a breakdown in social cohesion. We will have tents on the streets. I know there are some, but we\u2019ll have too many tents in the streets, and it\u2019ll look like a system that the Government is not in control of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan declined to supply a number of asylum seekers that he believed would be sustainable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not setting any numbers as a goal to get asylum figures down to. But what I do want to see is that there\u2019s a system that is designed and is operating for the benefit of people who are fleeing persecution and war,\u201d he said. \u201cThose who want to come here to work have another method of applying, which is through the work permit application.\u201d<\/p>\n

Language schools<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan said that 60,000 students were given permission to come to Ireland last year \u2212 which was something that the Government may seek to reduce. He said there was likely to be a focus on English language schools where many students also work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very legitimate that people are coming here to learn English,\u201d Mr O\u2019Callaghan said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut also I think it is being used as a mechanism to come in to work \u2026 We\u2019re going to try and tighten things up in respect of it. I suppose that\u2019ll involve greater assessment of the English language schools in the first instance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan said that the rate of increase of Ireland\u2019s population, at 1.6 per cent a year, is too high and that \u201cefforts should be made to try to curtail it. And in order to curtail it, the only way we can is through trying to introduce some policies in respect of inward migration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic that our population is increasing for years in this country with the declining population. The reason the population\u2019s increasing is because of the success of the Irish economy, because of the success of Ireland as a country. But we just need to be conscious that that rate of increase is very significant and is obviously putting huge pressures on other services that we provide.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did not suggest a rate of increase which would be more sustainable, but said that his department was working on a policy on migration and population which is expected to be published next year.<\/p>\n

Family reunification<\/p>\n

The Minister for Justice has taken a noticeably tougher line on migration<\/a>, recently hardening the rules for family reunification and on citizenship. . <\/p>\n

On family reunification, he said: \u201cI have to also take into account not just the interest of the individual\u2019s concern, I have to take into account the general public interest as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd obviously, if family reunification is ongoing and elderly parents are coming in, or younger children are coming in, the State is going to have a significant responsibility and cost and respect to those individuals. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, that\u2019s why it\u2019s important that people will be allowed to achieve family reunification, but you\u2019re going to have to display self-sufficiency and that you can take care of them yourselves financially.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he also said: \u201cI don\u2019t want people to think that I\u2019m trying to make negative decisions in respect of asylum applicants, but there are issues that arise in respect of asylum applicants that don\u2019t arise in respect of others who come here and serve on work permits.<\/p>\n

He said his department\u2019s calculation is that about 87 per cent of people who come to Ireland to seek asylum arrived across the Border with Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan has said that while he acknowledges errors were made during the presidential election, he supports Miche\u00e1l Martin as Fianna F\u00e1il leader and that people \u201cneed to be fair in terms of the assessment of a leader\u2019s performance and achievements\u201d.<\/p>\n

When pressed, he said: \u201cI\u2019ll say it to you. Listen, I\u2019m backing Miche\u00e1l Martin. I think we need to have a broader perspective of the past rather than just going back to September.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anti-Semitism in Ireland<\/p>\n

The Occupied Territories Bill<\/a> is \u201csensitive\u201d and \u201ccomplicated\u201d and the Government must \u201ctake into account Ireland\u2019s interests\u201d when deciding how to proceed with legislation, the Minister said.<\/p>\n

These comments come after the junior minister for European affairs, Thomas Byrne, said the Bill would not be changed to include services.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan said although Ireland was \u201cvery strong in seeking to defend the rights of the Palestinian people\u201d, it was also important Ireland acknowledges the \u201cZionist position that Israel<\/a> has a right to exist\u201d. He outlined the importance of speaking out against \u201clanguage that seeks to challenge the existence of Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Minister condemned the \u201cmurderous, anti-Semitic attack\u201d in Bondi Beach, Sydney<\/a>, and said anti-Semitism in Ireland was \u201csomething we have to confront\u201d.<\/p>\n

Drone activity<\/p>\n

He said he did not have a \u201cdefinitive response\u201d about who was responsible for drone activity over Dublin Bay during the visit of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy<\/a>, but added that during a meeting last week of EU defence and security ministers, \u201cone of the big topics of conversation was the increased use of drones by Russia within European Union territory\u201d.<\/p>\n

He expected significant collaboration with other EU countries on security and defence during Ireland\u2019s EU presidency next year. Mr O\u2019Callaghan said there are \u201cinternational players out there who will want to target Ireland and we need to increase our capacity to defend against that\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the world is changing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to recognise the threats to which Ireland is exposed, not just in terms of the area of drones, but also in terms of cybersecurity as well. So, we need greater investment in our defence technology. We\u2019re no longer in a position where nobody\u2019s interested in us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fears about \u201ca breakdown in social cohesion\u201d are prompting the Government to seek to reduce the number of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[895,61,60,18573,43],"class_list":["post-194304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-fianna-fail","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jim-ocallaghan","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}