A chartered flight has been used to remove 23 Romanian men from the State, all of whom have been associated with criminality.
The forced removal was announced by Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan on Monday. The men were aged between 22 and 49 years.
In a statement, the Department of Justice said all those removed had received custodial sentences for a range of offences. All are subject to re-entry bans of 10 years.
In all, 130 people have now been deported on five chartered flights since the beginning of this year.
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Another 137 were removed on commercial flights.
More than €1 million has been spent on the most recent charter flights. The most expensive was a flight that removed 24 men from Ireland to Pakistan in September, which cost €473,000.
There were two chartered flights to Georgia and one to Nigeria earlier this year.
Mr O’Callaghan said the right to freedom of movement is among the most fundamental rights and freedoms provided to European citizens.
“Restricting the right to freedom of movement is not a measure I take lightly, but there must be consequences if a person’s behaviour means they should no longer be entitled to access this privilege. Action will be taken if our laws are not respected and upheld and this includes enforcing removal orders and sending people home,” he said.
He said the vast majority of the Romanian community in Ireland were law-abiding and hardworking people.
Mr O’Callaghan later said the flight had landed safely in Bucharest on Monday evening.
Romania has been a member of the EU since 2007 and joined the Schengen area in 2024.
