Government approves emergency legislation to allow return of asylum seekers to UK

Ms McEntee says that she hopes to have the law enacted in weeks, but a spokesperson for 10 Downing Street said that any agreement between Ireland and the UK only exists informally and that it will decide who to accept.

The spokesperson said there are “operational arrangements” between the UK and Ireland but “not a legal obligation to accept the return of asylum seekers and under those operational arrangements no asylum seekers have been returned to the UK".

"It’s up to the UK government who we do and do not accept into the country," they added.

Speaking before Cabinet, Ms McEntee said ties between Ireland and the UK are "extremely close".

"We have to be able to return people to the UK, but there is an arrangement in place. We've been working with the UK, and I don't expect that that will change.

"This is one of a number of measures that I'm bringing forward and that I have been doing to make sure that we have an immigration system that's firm but fair."

"We cannot have a loophole or a system where we cannot effectively return people despite comments that have been made. This arrangement is already in place," she added.

Earlier, Taoiseach Simon Harris said the Government has a “legitimate expectation” that a migration agreement with the UK will be honoured.

Mr Harris said the post-Brexit deal was struck in 2020 and allows asylum seekers whose applications are “inadmissible” to be “returned” to the UK and vice versa.

It comes as a row has developed between the countries after Ms McEntee said there was a significant increase in the number of asylum seekers arriving in Ireland from across the Northern Ireland border.

After it was suggested the increase could be driven by migrants fearing the UK’s Rwanda plan, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak said that showed the plan’s effect.

The policy aims to send asylum seekers to the east African nation to deter others from crossing the English Channel.

Speaking before Cabinet, Ms McEntee said she stands by her claim that more than 80% of asylum seekers arriving in the state have come through the UK despite the Tánaiste saying it was not based on evidence, statistics or data.

The figure has since been questioned by human rights and refugee organisations while government ministers have also queried the number.

Government needs 'to stop introducing incendiary language'

Meanwhile, Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon said the Government must "stop introducing incendiary language into the public domain”, in reference to Ms McEntee’s disputed statement.

He told the Dáíl that the statement had “gone off like a bomb”.

“You cannot be using incendiary language like that, if you can’t then whip out the details and say this is exactly where that figure came from. We’re talking about people’s lives here,” Mr Gannon said. 

“When are they actually going to get it together?” 

He said the idea of returning asylum seekers back to the UK is “morally wrong” in his view, though he accepted that such a policy would be understandable “within reason”.

Labour’s Duncan Smith described the diplomatic row with the UK as being “a massive own goal” for the Government.

“To put an unsubstantiated or contested figure onto the record of a committee is really, really poor on this issue,” he said.

“It's just so powerful in a negative way,” Mr Smith said of Ms McEntee's pronouncements. He added that Ms McEntee and the Government “are all over the shop” in terms of immigration.

“The Government has to be extra, extra careful in terms of the language they use, the facts they give, and if you don’t have the facts you just need to be honest with people,” he said.