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Home Page > News > Irish government spends over a hundred million dollars annually on asylum seekers

Irish government spends over a hundred million dollars annually on asylum seekers

Cost of diapers for asylum seekers causes a stink as 5,000 seek refuge

PATRICK COUNIHAN,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Sunday, May 20, 2012, 10:02 AM

Updated Sunday, May 20, 2012, 10:02 AM

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Minister for Justice Alan Shatter

Photo by Google Images

The Irish government are spending over a hundred million dollars annually on asylum seekers – including thousands of dollars on diapers for their children.

Over 5,000 asylum seekers are currently in the care of the Irish authorities as they seek a new life in Ireland.

A new report states that the $100 million cost of processing their applications includes a payment for diapers.

They are listed as a miscellaneous cost of housing the 5,000-plus people looking for shelter in Ireland according to the Irish Sun newspaper.

Ireland’s justice minister Alan Shatter has defended the payments and said his officials are ‘fully entitled’ to authorise the expenditure.

“The procurement process was subject to scrutiny in the Value For Money review,” insisted Minister Shatter.

“In relation to the services contracted by RIA, such as food, accommodation and ancillary services, these, by definition, have to be provided in Ireland.

“Our review has confirmed the unique challenges in looking after asylum seekers and refugees.”

Accommodation costs amounted for the majority of the $100million spent on asylum seekers in 2011.

A staggering $80million was paid out to 37 privately owned centres housing refugees, seven of which have since closed.

Two commercially owned self-catering hostels and seven state-owned facilities also house refugees at a cost to the Irish state.

Shatter claims the costs will drop by eight per cent in 2012.

His department has reported that the number seeking refugee status dropped from a high of 10,038 in 2000 to just to 1,290 in 2011.

Only 239 people applied during the first three months of 2012. There are currently 5,169 asylum seekers in Ireland, a thousand fewer than in 2010.

Nigerians make up the biggest number, followed by refugees from Pakistan, China, Democratic Republic of Congo and war-torn Afghanistan.

Minister Shatter has signed 1,500 deportation orders in the past 14 months but just over 300 people have actually been sent home.

Nster.com

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sirpeter | May 26, 2012, 10:03 AM EDT

Wrong again Georgie Boy.You really must get your facts right and up to-date Prison population total = 4,279 at 30.10.2011 (Department of Justice and Equality)Prison population rate(per 100,000 of national population)95 based on an estimated national population of 4.50 million at end of October 2011 (from Eurostat figures)~~Here's is where you are wrong again Georgie Boy.Foreign prisoners (percentage of prison population)13.6% (1.9.2010)Looks like our foreign migrant's are either behaving themselves or they are gone home.Which one is it Georgie Boy??

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GeorgeDillon | May 25, 2012, 09:12 AM EDT

"There has been little or no problem with foreign nationals in Ireland." One in three inmates of Irish jails is a foreign migrant, but sirpeter (who elected him to speak for Ireland?) tells us "There has been little or no problem with foreign nationals in Ireland." What an idiot.

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GeorgeDillon | May 25, 2012, 09:10 AM EDT

We have no desire to be your family, sirpeter. We don't need racist crackpots like you.

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sirpeter | May 23, 2012, 10:40 PM EDT

IrelandNorth.We are talking about the movement of human beings here.I don't live in Ireland to preserve the past.My family is living in Ireland for 1500 years.Irish Americans are my relations but they are not family.To be family you have to live here.Irish Americans are welcome home.There has been little or no problem with foreign nationals in Ireland.They live in Ireland and that makes them family.They are nice people.I don't consider them a dangerous "dilutant".Stop talking sh*t with your bullsh*t negative ethnic equity.I think I have been agreeing with you on lots of your comments.But don't start with this racist crap.Ireland is not America.

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IrelandNorth | May 23, 2012, 06:59 AM EDT

Admittedly, there's an uncomfortable correlation between asylum seekers to Ireland and illegal aliens(?) in the US. But an unduly generous receptive state encourages asylum seekers, who phone home and invite their extended family. Since we love participatory democracy in Ireland, we should have a referendum. Ragged trousered philanthropists who vote for unrestricted access could be invoiced, thereby putting their money where their pious sanctimonious platitudes are. Anything more than 10% of foreign nationals is a dangerous dilutant. Since there are vastly more than that, Ireland now finds itself in negative ethnic equity courtesy of unelected faceless Eurocrats in Brussels, and constitutional subcontractee [m]ild colonial boys in Leinster House.

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mamaginnty | May 22, 2012, 04:56 PM EDT

You are big alright GoergefrigginDillon, you have the biggest filthiest ignorant mouth of anyone on this site, you make us squirm at your bigot comments, and your sick ranting about our country. What makes you think we all follow Fianna Faíl ? You are not Irish, you do not live in Ireland ( thank god ) and know nothing about Ireland except what your relations from Dublin talk/moan about, and the only reason you come to Ireland is to pick up the type of women you would find on any street corner in America, you opened that big mouth on that subject once to often, but I suppose doing it in America, the wife is there and you could get caught eh. You really are one big pain in the ass .Conas a oibríonn ar an talamh do bhean bata tú, is dóigh liom leithscéal as di.

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Bythebay | May 22, 2012, 11:53 AM EDT

Ireland will continue to welcome asylum seekers and continue to support them as needed or deport them as needed. Far better to spend money on them than to send Irish taxpayer money to the American Irish Historical Society on Fifth Avenue in New York which benefits no one in Ireland and which restricted attendance at Michael Higgins vist to the benefactor membership category of $2500 to see him. That wasn't James Connolly's vision.

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Bythebay | May 22, 2012, 11:43 AM EDT

Those complaining about multi-culturalism in Ireland, France and elsewhere are often those who are simultaneously complaining the Irish immigrants weren't welcomed with open arms in the US during the Famine and other times. If you don't want to treat others the way you wish Irish immigrants were treated in the US shame on you.

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sirpeter | May 22, 2012, 05:03 AM EDT

Oh!You big fat American hybrid idiot boy.You're a lost cause in every way Georgie Boy.It was much more appropriate to use Ryanair instead of Aer Lingus in my comment because Michael O'Leary would class Americans as lumpers and cargo.Do you get it now you useless creatin!!You fat American hybrid idiot boy you never will understand Poetic Licence in a comment will ya? What a dull unimaginative bunch of bores ye Americans are.

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sirpeter | May 21, 2012, 08:03 PM EDT

Naw!!Georgie Boy.A lumper wouldn't fit my description at all.Though Ryanair did say they have quite a few lumpers traveling to Ireland from the US every year.Georgie Boy Ryanair class Americans as cargo.

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sirpeter | May 21, 2012, 07:11 AM EDT

Well Georgie Boy that's not my fault if they don't leave when refused asylum ya thicko.They should be made leave by the authorities.The only difference between you and I when it comes to asylum seekers is you want to treat all these people like dogs and I want them treated with respect.Of course even I have my limits when it comes to an American hybrid idiot boy like yourself.

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cinderfella1 | May 21, 2012, 02:05 AM EDT

Charity begins at home first. Not abroad first. All the poor jobless Irish people having to leave their native homeland, while all this bunch of foreigners are given everything and treated like their Irish Royalty. The Irish people need to wake up and vote these politicians, who support asylum seekers, out of office! They have just about taken over France, will Ireland be next?

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cinderfella1 | May 21, 2012, 02:00 AM EDT

If Ireland doesn't watch it, these assylum seekers will take over Dublin first then the rest of Ireland. I was shocked when I went on a recent trip to Paris. I thought that I waS in Baghdad instead of Paris, because there are so many arabs there, and it's just a matter of time, until they take over that country.

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aloistmartin | May 20, 2012, 10:34 PM EDT

Dublin does what It can to keep the Riff Raff off The Streets of Ulster, in time for the Queens visit ... @?

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Seanmor | May 20, 2012, 09:49 PM EDT

Asylum seekers of the Third World know very well they're warmly welcomed in the Irish state, and many arrive there under false pretenses. In 2005 the Minister for Justice signed a deportation order of Nigerian Ms Izevbekhai and her 2 daughters, aged 9 and 10. She had suoght asylum in Ireland claining that her other daughter had been sexually mutilated ib her homeland and died as a result.. Finally, in May of last year, the European Court of Human Rights decided that there waas no official record of Izevbekhai's daughter having died as a result of mutilation and rejected her appear of deportation which the Irish court had ordered. At the present time common sense should dictate to high officials in the Dáil be more concerned about their own young, educated unemployed citizens than about foreigners seeking asylum in the midst of the current recession.

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