Fact check: The number of people seeking asylum in Ireland dropped in October

Data from October shows that international protection applications were around half in October compared to May, but only 25% lower than in June.

Thursday 28 November 2024 12:09 EST

Tented accommodation for international protection applicants on the site of the former Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum Co Dublin. (Niall Carson/PA) (PA Wire)

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Irish Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman said that since the new Government came to power in the UK, a “changed relationship” is one of the reasons that the number of people claiming asylum in Ireland has halved from its levels earlier this year.

Speaking on RTE’s Upfront programme on November 25, Mr O’Gorman said: “Particularly since the new (UK) Government came in in the summer of this year, we’ve seen a changed relationship, we’ve seen better engagement, and that’s one of the key reasons why the number of people seeking international protection right now is about half what it was earlier on in this year, because we are co-operating.”

Evaluation

The latest monthly report shows that the number of applications to the international Protection Office did approximately halve between May and October 2024.

However application numbers had already fallen significantly in June, before the new Labour Government took power in early July, and were higher in July, August and September than they were in June.

The facts

Have applications halved compared to earlier this year?

Each month the International Protection Office publishes a statistical report. These reports contain several datapoints, including how many applications for international protection have been received during the month.

The latest of these reports at the time of writing was for October. It showed that there were 1,053 applications in total during the month.

In May the same figure was 2,010, so if comparing October to May Mr O’Gorman is correct to say that numbers have approximately halved compared to earlier this year.

Have applications halved since Labour gained power?

Mr O’Gorman also said that better engagement with the new Government in London was one of the “key reasons” why numbers had halved.

The new Labour Government came into power on July 5 following the UK election the day before.

The figures from the International Protection Office show that the numbers applying for international protection had already dropped significantly from May’s 2,010 to just 1,404 in June. This was the last full month before Labour took office.

After Labour took power the numbers actually rose to 1,736 in July, then fell slightly to 1,692 in August and 1,559 in September. In October, as stated above, applications dropped significantly to 1,053, which is not half the amount seen in June before Labour took power.

Mr O’Gorman did not specify when the “better engagement” he cites started. Taoiseach Simon Harris spoke to the UK’s new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on July 5, the day Sir Keir gained office.

Mr Harris visited Sir Keir in London on July 17, and hosted Sir Keir in Dublin on September 7.

But regardless of when the better engagement started, monthly application numbers do not appear to have halved in October compared to July, August or September.

What has happened so far in November?

While the IPO’s statistics page only contains monthly reports on applications, the International Protection Accommodation Services, which houses people seeking protection, publishes weekly data.

These weekly reports do not show how many applications were received, but instead demonstrate the number of people arriving at IPAS accommodation.

The November accommodation arrivals figures are somewhat lower than in October. However it remains to be seen what the data on people seeking protection will show in November.