266. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of return orders issued under section 51A of the International Protection Act 2015 (as amended) in total and individually to the United Kingdom. [53986/25]

I can advise the Deputy that Section 51A of the International Protection Act 2015 provides for the making of a return order where an international protection application has been determined as inadmissible. An international protection application may be determined as inadmissible where certain conditions are met in accordance with section 21 of the same Act.

This situation will typically arise where the relevant applicant holds an international protection status in another EU Member State, where a country, other than an EU Member State, is a first country of asylum for the person, or where the person arrived from a State that is a safe third country, the UK has been designated as a safe third country for the purpose of the Act of 2015.

I can also advise that before such an order can be made, I, as Minister, must be satisfied that the making of the order would not result in a breach of the prohibition of refoulement, as enshrined in section 50A of that Act.

The Deputy should note that sections 50A and 51A are relatively new provisions on the Irish legislative landscape, having only come into effect on the first working day of 2021. During this time, there was a moratorium on returns and deportations in place during the Covid 19 pandemic. As a result, it was not until the second half of 2022 that the first return order was made under section 51A of the 2015 Act.

Furthermore, in the period between March 2024 and March 2025, the ability to issue return orders in circumstances where a person arrived from a safe third country was affected by a High Court judgment [2024] IEHC 183 which identified shortcomings in the procedures set out in the Act of 2015. This has since been remedied by amendments brought forward in the Courts, Civil Law, Criminal Law and Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2024, and the subsequent re-designation of the UK as a safe third country in March 2025.

Arrangements for re-operationalising an agreement for reciprocal returns of international protection applicants between Ireland and the UK, on foot of the re-designation of the UK as a safe third country, are being put in place in consultation with the UK.

The table below details return orders issued to the UK and the total return orders issued from 2022 to 2025.

*Data correct at time of issue and may be subject to data cleansing.