The number of migrants arriving in Ireland is putting the national asylum and reception system under strain, the European Commission has warned.
For the first time, under the EU’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum, the European Commission has calculated the level of migration in each EU member state.
Italy, Greece and Spain are under the most pressure and will be able to call on other member states to help them.
Ireland is one of 12 countries in the second category – judged to be ‘at risk’ if the number of migrants suddenly increases further. The EU said Ireland was under strain from a “high number” of people asking for international protection.
It also said there was a “significant proportion” of migrants arriving illegally from the UK.
“Ireland has also experienced a sustained high number of applications for international protection and a significant proportion enter the country irregularly principally arriving across the land border of the United Kingdom. This, together with the significant arrivals of persons benefitting from temporary protection, had an impact on the national asylum and reception system.”
European Annual Asylum and Migration Report (2025)
As a member state classed ‘at risk’, Ireland will have “priority access to the Permanent EU Migration Support Toolbox”.
A senior EU official said that, in practice, that would mean Ireland would be able to apply for extra EU funds and ask for help from EU agencies.
“Based on the available data, Member States hosted around 1,394,000 people in their national reception systems, mostly in Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Austria. Relative to their GDP and population, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria and Ireland had the most persons hosted in their reception systems [over the past year]”, the European Commission states in its report.
“During the reporting period, applications for international protection in Ireland stood at 14,000 compared to the unprecedented high numbers in the previous reporting period (18,000). This trend is visible since early 2022, alongside a high number of arrivals from Ukraine.”
The EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum is due to come dully into force next Summer.
It includes a ‘burden- sharing’ mechanism where EU member states can offer to take migrants from those countries under the greatest strain. Alternatively, they can pay cash to those countries like Greece and Italy as an act of “solidarity”.
EU officials admit that how the system will work in practice is still an unknown.
The European Commission for Migration, Magnus Brunner, said the new system is about getting a clear picture of the current situation and sharing the burden across the European Union.