Over the course of four years, the Department of Justice spent over €1.8 million on deportation flights, including at least €422,000 for business class flights for escort police back from operations, reports Breaking News.
When a deportation officer was promptly returning to Ireland on a long-haul trip without staying at the destination, the agency stated that spending money on executive seats was occasionally required.
According to records, deportation flights cost €1.09 million last year, with business class travel accounting for almost €262,000 of that total, reports Breaking News.
About a third of the approximately €463,000 spent on removal operations in 2023—€161,000—went for corporate seats.
Given that just €219,000 was spent in 2022 and €37,000 was paid for flights in 2021, the pace of expenditure has been rising.
During the COVID-19 epidemic, deportation activities were severely restricted, and only a few people were removed—usually for major crimes, reports Breaking News.
According to data made available under FOI, 156 deportation orders were issued via air last year.
Among them were 66 Georgians, 19 South Africans, 15 Albanians, 14 Brazilians, 7 Algerians, and 7 Nigerians, reports Breaking News.
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Eighty removals were performed in 2023. This consisted of 18 Georgians, 9 Brazilians, 9 South Africans, 8 Pakistanis, and 6 Nigerians.
In order to prevent potential identification, the agency does not give a breakdown of the additional 30 deportations to other nations that year when the nationality numbers are fewer than five.
In 2022, 118 orders were issued, removing 14 Albanians, 18 Pakistani people, and 20 Nigerians from the state, reports Breaking News.
Nine people from China, including Hong Kong, nine from India, eleven from Brazil, and thirteen from Georgia were also deported that year.
Thirteen individuals from Pakistan and five from Albania were included in the numbers for 2021, when only 38 deportations were executed.
The number of removal operations that would be conducted annually is expected to increase significantly, as promised by the government, reports Breaking News.
The first of many scheduled charter flights, which cost around €102,000, departed the state in February with 32 passengers, including three women and a kid, bound for Georgia.
An information note from the department said about flight costs: “Business class travel is used in limited circumstances for operational reasons and subject to case-by-case approval. In particular, it can be approved for return leg travel from certain countries by escort staff in circumstances where for operational reasons a quick turnaround is necessary and officers return on the next available flight rather than entering the country,” reports Breaking News.
According to the department, business class travel was “availed off to the return [airport] hub only” in these instances, and the officers involved did not book hotel accommodations.
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