Secret briefing shows Government negligence on immigration surge

JUSTICE Minister Helen McEntee received a secret briefing paper on immigration that recommended the urgent resumption of deportations of those who arrive here purely for economic, rather than asylum, reasons. The paper notes that between 2015 and 2020, an average of 1,341 deportation orders were issued each year. In 2021, that number fell to 155.

It took a Freedom of Information request, and a multi-staged fight by journalist Ken Foxe, to bring you the details of that briefing paper today. The revelation that the department was warned, well in advance of the influx of economic migrants rather than genuine asylum seekers, will do little to quell the notion that those who are in charge of Ireland’s immigration policy have been asleep at the wheel.

We also reveal the full 2023 figures for the Top 10 highestearning accommodation providers. The names are now familiar to regular readers, but the staggering sums are still astonishing, with the top two alone taking in €100million.

To compound this obvious policy failure, we now have the reality that the Department of Justice should have moved quicker to redesign what has long since gone beyond a creaking asylum process.

Ireland is naturally a nation of welcomes, but in a changing global economy threatened by instability caused by climate change, we can no longer rely on the broken immigration system built at the start of the Noughties.

The current backlogs have led to the blight on Irish society that is direct provision, and have now allowed the issue of where to accommodate new arrivals to become both a political hot potato, and a rallying cry for the far right.

Immigration is a political challenge that has been welldocumented in every developed country over the course of the last 50 years. This challenge is best met by a steady hand, clear communication, and a functioning applications process.

Ireland will continue to live up to its international protection obligations, but we cannot be seen to be a soft touch that allows bogus asylum seekers take the place of people genuinely fleeing war or political or religious persecution.

The failure of this Government and this minister to get to grips with the issue is laid bare in the fact that they have fought hard to keep the existence of this memo secret.

Had they been as assiduous in designing an immigration policy dedicated to solving the growing problem, they might have made better use of their time.

COSY EXIT DEALS NOT JUST AT RTÉ

Today, we reveal details of the pension entitlements of Fine Gael TDs who have announced that they will not seek re-election.

We also point out that if outgoing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, and outgoing Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Simon Coveney themselves decide not to stand again, or indeed lose their seats if they do, they will receive six-figure termination payments.

Given recent controversy over exit payments in RTÉ, and the public’s disgust at those revelations, it is a bit strange that politicians have set up a system that means even though they too are choosing to leave their jobs, they are walking out the door with golden parachutes.

Unfortunately, Messrs Varadkar and Coveney will no longer be in a position to change this, even if they wished to do so.

Of course, they could always waive the payments if they share the general outrage professed by others in their party over the RTÉ debacle.