Ireland is experiencing economic migration and people should not come here if they know “deep down” they won’t be granted international protection, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.
The Fianna Fáil leader was speaking after Tánaiste Simon Harris said that the number of people migrating to Ireland was “too high” and that it is taking too long for people with no right to be here to leave.
Asked about Mr Harris’s comments, Mr Martin said “the levels of what we might call asylum-seeking has increased significantly since Covid, or before Covid”.
“About 80 per cent are refused on their first stage of the appeal. And that’s significant because it really points to what you’re looking at here is economic migration, primarily, and basically people shouldn’t come to Ireland if they know deep down that they’re not going [to be granted asylum].”
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Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with Claire Byrne programme, he said Ireland should not “rule out” sending unsuccessful asylum seekers to sites outside the EU’s borders while deportation to their home countries is arranged.
“I don’t think we should rule it out, I think this is a broader issue across Europe,” Mr Martin said. “I think these are issues we will examine and then we’re not ruling anything out.”
Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Harris said: “Our migration numbers are too high, and I think that is really an issue that needs to be considered in a very serious way by Government. One of the reasons I think they are so high is that there are too many people who come to this country and are told they do not have a right to be here, and it is taking too long for them to leave the country.”
On Thursday, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said he agreed with Mr Harris’s comments on immigration, and that the number of people seeking international protection in Ireland has grown. Mr Donohoe said that having an “open economy and an open society” has been “tremendously important” for Ireland and its economy.
“If we are going to, and I believe we should, maintain support for that openness in the future and make the case for the value of openness, we need rules to do that. And we need to ensure that the rules are being implemented and enforced in the way we all want,” Mr Donohoe told RTE Radio 1’s News at One programme.
“Those who come to our country, who shouldn’t be here, who don’t meet those rules, we are making progress on how we are dealing with that. But numbers of people who are coming, seeking international protection, has grown. And we are all working on how we can handle that in the most effective way possible.”
Earlier, a Social Democrats TD accused Mr Harris of “going down the Nigel Farage route” following his comments about immigration.
Gary Gannon, the party’s justice and home affairs spokesman, called on Mr Harris to act as a legislator, not a commentator when it comes to the issue of the numbers of migrants coming to Ireland.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland, Mr Gannon said “maybe he’s going down the Nigel Farage route”, adding that Mr Harris was speaking as if he were not in power.
“I think if the average punter on the street said that, you would have to say, fair enough, there does seem to be a huge amount of challenges in the system, but this is the second authority of the State, the Tánaiste, at a time when we need calm heads, we need leadership, we need fact-based argument, and he’s effectively just speaking as if he’s a commentator rather than someone who’s supposed to legislate,” said Mr Gannon.
“What he could have also said was their numbers this year have also decreased by 40 per cent on last year. He could have talked about the absolute failures in the system that he’s presided over for 10 years and how he was going to address them.
“There is absolutely lags within the system. People are being caught up within that for years, but that’s a failure of management. We have a management crisis in this country and Simon Harris is fairly much to the fore of responsibility for that.”
Mr Gannon said the comments “have the potential to be inflammatory” in the wake of violent anti-immigration protest in Citywest in Dublin.
“They don’t add anything substantial to the debate,” said Mr Gannon. “They don’t talk about the fact that there are people here who have contributed hugely to our country. They don’t talk about how we’re going to address the silos in the system.”
On the same programme, Fine Gael TD Barry Ward said the Tánaiste’s comments had been “measured and absolutely factually correct”.
“He has identified the fact that we do have massive pressure on our migration system, there’s no disputing that. What we also have is huge investment to that system and we have massively reduced the waiting times for the processing of applications, which makes it easier to deal with people coming here seeking a chance.”
Mr Ward said that despite the reductions in the waiting times, there were still thousands of people coming to Ireland, which led to huge pressure on the system. He acknowledged there were problems with the system, for example with information flows.
“The department is not nearly frank enough with people in local communities about what’s happening. We need to speed up the times, we need to be more effective in terms of when deportation orders have been made, that people are not remaining here for months and months and months, that those orders are given effect.”
Mr Gannon said the Tánaiste should provide leadership. “What he offered yesterday is the absence of that.”
Mr Ward said if there was to be reasonable debate on the subject, then people, including Ministers and TDs, should have the right to express their views.
Labour MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said on Thursday that Mr Harris’s comments on immigration were “disgraceful and extremely dangerous” and risked legitimising anti-immigrant sentiment. Mr Ó Ríordáin said the Government cannot continue to say “immigration is a good thing” while using language “that undermines that message”.
“These remarks from the Tánaiste are disgraceful and extremely dangerous,” said Mr Ó Ríordáin. “When the Tánaiste says ‘numbers are too high’, it sends a message that the Government itself is buying into divisive rhetoric. It is reckless, harmful and beneath the office he holds.
“It is not good enough to issue statements saying that ‘immigration is good’ while adopting language that undermines that message. People hear the dog-whistle – and it has real-world consequences for those who have made Ireland their home.”
