Aontú Leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has welcome some of the steps being taken by the government to reduce immigration in Ireland but warned that the government’s actions were not enough. An Teachta Tóibín stated.
“As a party we have stated very clearly that we support providing shelter for people fleeing war and violence. However the asylum process in Ireland has been far too weak with many people applying for economic reasons and not because of war or violence. We want compassion but also common sense. Asylum applications fell last year reducing pressure on the system. However there was a steep increase of asylum applicants in the last quarter of 2025.
We welcome stricter regulations for family reunification for asylum seekers that were announced today but it’s not enough.
Family reunification is not specifically for the purpose of providing shelter for those fleeing war and violence. It goes beyond that objective. If there are family members that need asylum, that route is open currently. Family reunification rules can allow spouses, partners, children, parents and grandparents. This is a big cohort of people. So each individual asylum decision can mean a large number of people gain leave to stay in Ireland. The process here has been less regulated than in some other EU countries. This can create a pull factor. It can make Ireland a more attractive location to apply for asylum. For an even distribution of applicants, all EU countries should offer a similar system.
There have also been reports that for those who come to Ireland to work, and receive work permits, that the wait time for family reunification will fall to one year. This is a mistake. Many people come to Ireland and do good work. Many essential work spaces such as the health service would be lost without workers coming to Ireland. We value these workers and thank them for their contribution. But there were 40,000 work permits issued in 2024. Not all of these workers worked in essential sectors. This figure needs to be paired back to be specifically for essential work in the health service and a number of really important sectors. Reducing the application time for family reunification in this area will put further pressure on the system. Also there are over 60,000 student visas are issued every year. This is excessive given the crisis in housing at the moment. Student visas needs to be significantly reduced.
Its important to say that the lack of housing and services in this country is the fault of the government. But while we have an ineffective government unable to build homes and a static supply, increasing the population significantly each year puts major pressure on availability, prices and rents for both Irish citizen and migrant.
Deportation and voluntary returns for those who fail the asylum process are still too low and too slow. Everyone who fails the asylum process should be returned home in a speedy fashion. The lack of an Irish sea border for the movement of people is part of the problem. We in Aontú have sought to put that on the agenda of the North South Interparliamentary Assembly and the British Irish Interparliamentary Assembly. The government needs to draw up a plan for a third country asylum application process too. This is where a safe country outside of the EU would become the location where asylum applicants seeking to come to Ireland could make their application to come to Ireland.
