Immigration to Ireland decreased by 16% in the year leading up to April 2025, according to the European Migration Network (EMN) Ireland’s annual review. The decline was largely attributed to a reduction in arrivals from Ukraine, although applications for international protection also saw an increase.
Decline in Arrivals from Ukraine
A total of 111,480 Personal Public Service numbers were allocated to Ukrainians between February 2022 and December 2024, with 9,558 allocated in 2024 alone. Despite the decrease in Ukrainian arrivals, applications for international protection rose by 40% in 2024.
International Protection Applications
The Department of Justice has announced a subsequent 40% reduction in international protection applications for 2025. In 2024, Ireland accounted for 1.86% of the EU total of 997,350 applications, an increase from 1.17% in 2023. The top three countries of origin for these applications were Nigeria, Jordan, and Pakistan, with the largest increase coming from Jordan and the largest decrease from Algeria.
Processing and Decisions
The International Protection Office (IPO) “significantly scaled up decision making” in 2024, with a 56% increase in the number of decisions made compared to the previous year. However, the median processing time for completed IPO cases remained at 16 months. Of the 13,108 decisions made, 70% were refusals, and 35% of final refusals were overturned on appeal or review.
Border Refusals and Voluntary Returns
In 2024, 6,895 third-country nationals were refused entry, a 7% decrease from 2023 and a 25% decrease from 2022. Refusals for individuals with Albanian nationality more than doubled, rising from 435 in 2023 to 1,010 in 2024, making Albanians the most common nationality to be refused entry. Conversely, the number of South Africans refused entry nearly halved, from 605 to 330. There was a significant increase in voluntary returns, with a 345% rise between 2023 and 2024, totaling 935 – the highest number in the last decade.
Accommodation Pressures
The report noted a worsening inability to accommodate all applicants for asylum, with almost 6,000 applicants not offered accommodation upon arrival throughout 2024.
Legal Migration and Employment Permits
Legal migration, the largest source of arrivals, saw a 27% increase in employment permits issued in 2024, following a decrease in 2023. The health and social work activities sector accounted for 32% of permits, while information and communication activities accounted for 17%. Increases in permits were observed across all sectors, particularly in agriculture, forestry, and fishing.
Residence permit data indicated that 24% of first permits issued to non-EEA nationals in 2024 were for employment, 48% for education, 5% for family reunification, and 5% for international protection. The remaining permits fell into an ‘other’ category.
The findings in the EMN report were based on published first-source material, including Government and annual reports, as well as statistics from the Central Statistics Office and Eurostat. Report author Keire Murphy described 2024 as a year of “mixed pressures,” noting the strong uptake of employment permits responding to labor market gaps, but also persistent capacity pressures in international protection processing and accommodation.
Read the report in full here
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