{"id":624823,"date":"2026-09-14T23:18:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T23:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/624823\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T23:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T23:18:18","slug":"safety-of-gardai-abroad-part-of-reason-for-state-chartering-return-deportation-flights-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/624823\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety of garda\u00ed abroad part of reason for State chartering return deportation flights \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The State charters return flights to transport people being deported partly as it could be dangerous for accompanying garda\u00ed to have to wait in certain parts of the world for commercial airlines, the Department of Justice<\/a> has indicated.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the D\u00e1il Public Accounts Committee<\/a>, Department of Justice secretary general Doncha O\u2019Sullivan said, to date, just over \u20ac3 million had been paid out under an overall \u20ac5 million contract, reached in November 2024, with a company called Air Partner to facilitate \u201cthe deportation in the case of third country nationals and removals for EU nationals\u201d. <\/p>\n

This figure does not include the cost of transporting people being deported to Nigeria last July.<\/p>\n

In correspondence with the department, the Public Accounts Committee wanted to know why charter flights were used for the return leg to Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere a decision is made to return by charter, the return flight can take place on the same plane as used for the removal and takes place shortly after the returned people disembark. The decision to use a return charter is made by the department in consultation with the Garda National Immigration Bureau,\u201d the Department of Justice said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn determining whether to use commercial flights or a return charter, consideration is given to the availability and cost of return flights. Each airline has different rules around how many group bookings can be made. In some instances, airlines only allow a small number of seats to be block booked, which could result in escorts and support staff waiting a number of days to return, resulting in them not being able to return to other duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some cases, the safety of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na staff in the destination country would be a factor taken into account in determining if they should be directly returned on the original charter aircraft\u201d<\/p>\n

Fine Gael TD and a member of the Public Accounts Committee James Geoghegan said he was struck by the department\u2019s statement that the safety of garda\u00ed in a destination country could be a factor in deciding to fly them straight home on the charter aircraft. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere may well be legitimate operational reasons for that, but it raises an obvious question: if there are circumstances where it is considered unsafe for garda\u00ed to remain in a country, how is that assessment reconciled with the decision to return people there? That deserves a clear explanation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice said charters had a number of benefits, \u201cincluding that they allow for groups of people to be removed on one direct flight, whereas most airlines place restrictions on the numbers who can be removed on one flight\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore, in many cases commercial flights will require a transit through a hub airport which brings additional complexity. The security and safety of deportees, Garda and other support personnel and fellow passengers is also an important consideration in determining the mode of travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice told the committee that in addition to the cost of flight charters, in the nine months to September 2025 there were Garda costs of about \u20ac1.3 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese costs are in respect of Garda escort activity across all returns, including on commercial flights, specifically travel and subsistence and overtime costs arising.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geoghegan said the figures showed \u201cthe substantial resources now involved in enforcing deportation orders\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd this is not just about money. Every garda required for these operations is unavailable for other duties at a time when we need as many garda\u00ed as possible visible in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State charters return flights to transport people being deported partly as it could be dangerous for accompanying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,72,9691,61,60,12467],"class_list":["post-624823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-business","tag-department-of-justice","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-public-accounts-committee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624823","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=624823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}