Ireland ‘nowhere near’ Ice-style deportation system – Justice minister

By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association

Ireland is “nowhere near” an Ice-style deportation system, the Minister of Justice has said.

Jim O’Callaghan was discussing immigration issues on The Claire Byrne show on Thursday when he was asked if it would be an “acceptable practice to lift people off the streets who shouldn’t be here”, in a style similar to the deportations being carried out by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

O’Callaghan answered: “We’re nowhere near what’s happening in the United States.”

But he said that people who receive deportation orders, including those who have gone through the asylum process and those who have overstayed their visas, must leave the country.

He added: “If they don’t leave voluntarily, we politely and peacefully force them to leave.”

Asked by the Newstalk host about the €1.2 billion cost to the state of asylum seeker accommodation, O’Callaghan said he was “introducing measures” to reduce that spend.

Those measures include the purchasing of more units to “increase the amount of accommodation that the state owns”, but said the state would not be looking at purpose-built accommodation.

He said the state intends to purchase more facilities like the City West Hotel in Dublin, which was bought by the Government last year at a cost of €148.2 million.

O’Callaghan said that deal increased the number of spaces owned by the state from 900 to 4,000 last year.

He added that it was “cheaper to buy” the site than to continue to lease it.

At the time of the deal, the Government said the savings to the state of buying the hotel “will pay back the purchase price within four years”.

The state would “not just” be procuring hotels, O’Callaghan said, but did not elaborate on what other type of properties would be bought by the Government.

Currently, the department’s budget for international protection accommodation allows for 33,000 units, O’Callaghan said.