Ireland will offer migrant families up to €10,000 if they drop their asylum claims
The country is experiencing a chronic housing shortage and the payment is aimed at easing the pressure on the asylum seeker system.
Under the voluntary return programme, asylum seekers receive financial support to return home if they don’t have permission to stay in Ireland.
The government intends to increase the amount to €2,500 per person and a maximum of €10,000 per family.
In the UK, migrants without permission to stay are offered up to £3,000 to leave.
The increased voluntary grant will apply to those who sought asylum in Ireland before September 28 and to those waiting for a ruling on their status.
Opponents from the Social Democrats party claimed the scheme was a ‘right-wing dog whistle dressed up as efficiency’.
But Taoiseach Micheál Martin hit back at the criticism, which he claimed was ‘excessive, extreme language’ and ‘misplaced’.
He said it ‘made sense’ to create a system which encouraged people who were likely to be rejected asylum status to leave.
‘If people are seeking asylum, and in their heart of hearts know that they are not going to receive it, it could be economic migrants or whatever, the idea of giving people a helping hand to return or to be integrated to where they return to makes sense to me, both for the individuals concerned, but also for the broader system here in terms of the cost,’ he said.
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