Minister for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity Christopher O'Sullivan has said the likening of Government rhetoric on migration to UK Reform party leader Nigel Farage is "absolutely disgraceful".
Earlier this week, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns accused Tánaiste Simon Harris of playing politics "straight out of the Farage playbook".
Mr Harris had said Ireland's migration numbers are "too high".
He said: "One of the reasons I think they are so high is that there are too many people who come to this country and are told they do not have a right to be here, and it is taking too long for them to leave the country."
In 2024, 2,403 deportation orders were signed, with 1,116 people departing the state under enforced deportation orders or voluntary return.
Some 1,287 people were issued with deportation orders but did not depart the State last year.
Meanwhile, Ireland had inward migration of 149,200 in the year to April 2024, including 30,000 returning Irish citizens, CSO figures show.
Speaking on RTÉ's The Week in Politics, Fianna Fáil TD Christopher O’Sullivan said Mr Farage has described migration in the UK as an invasion, whereas the Irish Government has said it is "a good thing" that "benefits the economy and society".
"What we've said is that there needs to be a conversation and that has been somehow labelled as dog whistling, which I think is absolutely incorrect," he said.
"There needs to be a conversation because we have to look at reality. The rate at which people are applying for International Protection has increased significantly, we can't deny that. It's not racist or xenophobic to say that.
"If you compare figures to 2018, 2019, 2020, we were looking at about between 3,000 and 5,000 per year. It was 18,500 in 2024. So there is a need for the system to adapt.
"The onus is on Government to build houses ... we need an adequate healthcare system. Migration forms part of that - a lot of the construction workers, healthcare workers, will inevitably come from outside the EU.
"But I don't think it's racist or xenophobic to say we need to have a conversation about the rate of increase of international protection applicants."
Coppinger accuses Harris of making inaccurate statements
People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger said "blatant racist" and "inaccurate" statements are being made by Tánaiste Simon Harris.
"He actually implied that the reason we have high migration is that people are illegally here because they're not being deported, which is completely inaccurate," she said.
"He seems to be saying lots of contradictory things because the reality is that in my constituency and all around this country, we have migrant workers propping up our health service, working in vital areas of our care system, and we cannot do without them. But they're now living in fear."
Deputy Coppinger said Mr Harris has "added to the fear" among minority and migrant communities.
She also said some statements by Sinn Féin have been "really disappointing".
"Matt Carthy on the Tonight Show in the last week used the argument that we are at capacity for the population that we have. He might as well have said Ireland is full," she added.
In response, Sinn Féin TD Conor McGuinness said Ireland has a "broken" international protection system that is "at capacity" and has been "for a very, very long time".
He said migration and international protection are being conflated, which is not helpful.
"Immigration is a healthy, important feature of our society at the moment," he said.
"Anybody who has been in hospital with a loved one in recent years, anybody who is depending on care assistants in the home for an elderly parent, will see that without inward migration those systems will crumble."
Need for discussion on immigration, says Collins
The leader of Independent Ireland, Michael Collins, said a lot of "great people" have come into the country to work and are "more than welcome" but the issue of immigration "should have been discussed years ago".
Speaking on the same programme, he said he had "pleaded for discussion" in the Dáil in relation to Citywest.
"Let the communities, let the people, let the public representatives have their say. There's no need in people throwing ridiculous comments or nasty comments, that's not welcome. Violence towards people is absolutely and utterly unacceptable by everybody," he said.
"But there was a recent poll by the Sunday Independent saying 82% of people feel, in relation to migrants, that their voice is not being heard.
"As a parliament, we need to discuss that. There's €1 billion of taxpayers' money being spent on accommodation, we need to discuss that issue. Certainly we need to look at deportations and make sure they're sped up."
Deputy Collins said the current system is "chaotic" and is "not working".
People are "extremely worried" because their communities are "overran", he said, arguing that the infrastructure is not there for accepting "huge amounts" of people.
"People are coming in from safe countries and appealing systems and being left here and we have very, very poor guidelines as to removing people that don't need to be in this country and have no call to be in this country."
