Jim O'Callaghan
speaker
581 appearances
4 recordings
2 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 31 Jul
Jim O'Callaghan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 4 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 2.
Appearances
And obviously, Ireland had low numbers of people coming, claiming asylum prior to COVID.
It was around 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 a year.
But then after COVID, it took off significantly.
In 2024, it was 18,500 people came in.
Last year, it got it down to 13,000.
And like, I don't make any apologies about saying it.
I want to reduce the number of people coming to Ireland claiming asylum.
And the reason I want to do that is because of data.
Because the data tells me, for instance, this year, 5,500 people have had their asylum applications adjudicated.
83% have been rejected.
And even when you take into account appeals, the appeal rate allows around 30%.
So the very, very significant majority of people coming to Ireland claiming asylum are not entitled to asylum.
They're entitled to claim asylum, but ultimately we can see that they don't get asylum.
And that's information that I'm trying, entitled to use for the purpose of developing policy.
Yeah, but you have to take into account the people who have their applications rejected.
They're not fleeing conflict.
They're not fleeing war.
They're here, and it's probably something we would do as well.
They're here because there are economic opportunities for them in Ireland.
I would much prefer, and I think would make the whole system operate more effectively, if people who wanted to come to Ireland for economic reasons used the economic avenues that are available to come here, as opposed to misusing the asylum system.
Showing 161–180 of 581 · page 9 of 30
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