The Minister of State with Responsibility for Migration has said that Ireland was not a soft target for those seeking international protection.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Colm Brophy said that a fairer system was needed in Ireland.
"It wasn't so much the island was seen as a soft target, but I think what we needed to have was a firm, fair and effective system," he said.
"It's fairer for the people who are going through the system and it's fairer to the actual State itself in terms of the cost of providing the system ... we had a couple of years, where Minister (Helen) McEntee and Minister Roderic O'Gorman were dealing with very high numbers," said Mr Brophy.
His comments come after Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan told a Cabinet sub-committee this morning that his Department is beginning to see the number of applications for International Protection noticeably reduce.
RTÉ News understands there has been a 43% reduction in applications in the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2024.
Department of Justice figures show the number of IPAS cases had been rising over the last number of years and reached 18,500 last year.
But there has also been a speeding up of the processing of applications and this has been attributed to a significant increase in investment into the international protection system which, combined with digitisation and process reengineering, has facilitated a major increase in processing capacity.
Figures show that the International Protection Office last year delivered over 14,000 first decisions compared to over 8,500 in 2023, while the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT) closed around 3,100 appeals in 2024 compared to over 1,700 in 2023.
Further growth in decisions will be delivered in 2025.
The introduction of accelerated processing from November 2022 is for those from designated safe countries of origin, applicants who have received protection elsewhere in Europe and those from a country with a particularly high number of applications.
It is said to have resulted in significant reductions in the number of applicants from those countries.
Mr Brophy denied that the lives of people who were being turned away were being put at risk.
"We don't put people's lives at risk. We have, I believe, a fair process whereby when people arrive into this country, there is a process, we do doorsteps where we check for documentation.
"But we have a process, I believe, that ranks right up there with [how] any other countries process in terms of being fair to people when they arrive in.
"And where they're not entitled to be in the country, where they're not entitled to enter the country or where they've gone through a process of claiming international protection and being told that they don't have a right to remain, that those people must leave," he said.
In 2023 there were 2,082 applications from people with Nigerian nationality and that rose to 4,035 in 2024 before dropping to 926 in the first six months of this year.
There was also a substantial reduction in the number of applications from Algerian nationals with 1,462 in 2023, 281 in 2024 and 64 in the first six months of this year.
The first half of 2025 has also seen a drop in the number of IPAS applications from Palestinians.
There were 118 in 2023, 957 in 2024 and 65 in the first six months of this year.
Doras CEO urges caution around drop in figures
The CEO of migrant organisation Doras, John Lannon, said that the drop in immigration figures does not come as a surprise.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime programme, Mr Lannon said: "It is quite a big drop, but this is the trend across Europe and has been for the last half a year or more. Here in Ireland, perhaps faster processing, stronger border controls might have contributed to the fall in the number of new claims.
"But there are dangers inherent in both of those so we need to be careful here," he added.
Mr Lannon said that faster processing times need to be matched with adequate access to legal aid.
This, he said, is difficult due to the limited resources of the Legal Aid Board.
However Mr Brophy said he was satisfied that people going through the process would have access to legal aid.
"I believe that people will [have access] because we're going to put the legislation in place, we're going to ensure that people have access to the requirements that they need in terms of being able to make their initial case and being able to make the appeal to do that in a way that's fair to them," he added.
