Minister Jim O’Callaghan TD: Building a modern and efficient justice system
The portfolio of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration is large and ambitious, reflecting the public’s most fundamental need to feel safe and secure in their homes and communities, writes Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Jim O’Callaghan TD.
Since taking office in January 2025, I have prioritised building a modern and efficient justice system and delivering a rules-based international protection process.
I am doing this through investment in resources, progressive legal reforms, and significant policy shifts.
I am also supportive of An Garda Siochana in the pursuit of law and order. A strong, highly visible Garda presence in our cities and towns is the most effective measure for preventing crime and ensuring safety. That is why strengthening Garda numbers and delivering on the government’s commitment of recruiting 5,000 additional gardai over the next five years has been an immediate focus for me.
I launched two recruitment campaigns this year and the result has been significant, attracting over 11,100 applicants. This is a resounding vote of confidence from a new generation ready to serve.
My commitment to An Garda Siochana goes beyond recruitment numbers. I secured a record allocation in Budget 2026 for investment in Garda technology, equipment and innovation. Next year the national roll-out of Body Worn Cameras will begin at scale, the Garda fleet will be strengthened and cyber security and garda intelligence bolstered.
Supporting victims
Modernising our policing is complemented by wider reforms under my portfolio particularly for victims of crime and survivors of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.
Victims must be at the heart of a modern justice system. Significant work has been undertaken under the Supporting a Victim’s Journey plan to reform the system so that a full range of supports are available from the moment an offence is reported through to the investigation, trial, and beyond.
A 50 per cent funding increase for Free Legal Advice Centres in Budget 2026 will support access to justice for all, and work to establish a statutory victims compensation tribunal is well underway.
I am also building on the progress of recent years to ensure that survivors of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence are supported, perpetrators are held accountable, and the toxic attitudes that fuel this abuse are no longer accepted.
Zero tolerance
A fundamental change in attitudes and the eradication of sexual violence from our society is driven by a zero-tolerance policy approach.
This commitment is not just a slogan, it is backed by legal reforms in parallel with the outstanding work of Cuan and so many other organisations and services working relentlessly in communities across the country.
Under the Zero Tolerance Strategy, key legal reforms have been introduced including a doubling of the maximum sentence for assault causing harm to 10 years and criminalising stalking and non-fatal strangulation.
Among the areas I am currently focused on is the removal of guardianship rights from a person who has been convicted of killing their intimate partner.
This legislation is well advanced. The primary aim is child protection and welfare. The court will consider in these cases whether a revocation of guardianship would be in the best interests of the child. Revocation of guardianship is not automatic, and the court will have discretion to take all matters into account.
I am also finalising The General Scheme of the Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025 to ensure that a victim’s counselling records are only released where the court decides they contain material relevant to ensuring a fair trial.
The disclosure of counselling records is a complex and highly sensitive balancing of individuals’ rights. I must ensure that legislative provisions balance the victim’s right to personal privacy and the accused person’s right to a fair trial. As the Supreme Court has noted, the intended legal mechanism simply hasn’t worked, placing undue pressure on complainants and allowing confidential records to be disclosed far too casually.
This is a stark failing of the system, and I am correcting it.
The Bill will also introduce two new specific criminal offences around ‘sex for rent’ – offering accommodation in exchange for sex and the advertising of accommodation in exchange for sex. The provisions cover both rental agreements between landlords and tenants, and ‘rent-a-room’ situations. It is the offer or advertisement that is being criminalised.
In October I was very pleased to secure Cabinet approval to draft new legislation to introduce ‘Jennie’s Law’.
Jennie’s Law, named in honour of Jennifer Poole who was murdered by her ex-partner in 2021, will provide for those convicted of domestic violence against an intimate partner to be named on a publicly accessible Domestic Violence Register of Judgements published by the Courts Service.
But legislation alone cannot end sexual violence perpetrated on women. We must drive cultural change. Men and teenage boys have a significant role to play in achieving this. Silence is complicity, so I will continue to call on all men to speak out, to challenge toxic behaviours, and to model respect and empathy within society.
Fairness in international protection
My Department assumed responsibility for all aspects of the international protection process in May this year, including sourcing and providing accommodation for people applying for international protection and for people fleeing the war in Ukraine.
I have approached this issue with a clear overriding purpose: to ensure integrity, efficiency, and public confidence. My actions have been driven by a firm resolve to build a rules-based system that is fair to those truly in need and firm with those who exploit it.
The right to claim asylum is an important principle of international law dating back to 1951. To protect that system for the very people who need it, i.e., those fleeing war and persecution, it has to work.
When people make illegitimate claims for international protection, they do a disservice to the truly persecuted and undermine the very integrity of the system designed to protect them.
The challenges we face in our international protection system are not abstract. They have been felt directly by communities across Ireland, and in the unacceptable costs to our Exchequer.
Prior to the pandemic, there were typically 3,000 to 5,000 applications for international protection in Ireland each year.
Between 2022 and 2024, this pattern changed quickly and substantially, with a surge in the numbers arriving rising to over 13,500 in both 2022 and 2023, and 18,500 in 2024. At the same time, over 114,000 people arrived in Ireland fleeing the war in Ukraine. Consequently, a total of 159,000 people arrived in Ireland claiming temporary protection or international protection in that three-year period from 2022 to 2024.
These numbers created a crisis. They threatened to overwhelm the ability of the International Protection Office to process cases and placed the State in a very weak negotiating position as it needed to expand dramatically the accommodation available to both international protection applicants and Ukrainian citizens.
In response the State invested in hiring more staff to process the applications. I am continuing this investment. In 2019, there were 143 people working in the International Protection Office. Today, there are 620 which is an increase of 334 per cent.
My central policy objective is to expedite the decision-making process. Faster decisions will allow those who need our protection the ability to get on with their lives rather than waiting in limbo. It also means those who are not entitled to protection leave the country much sooner.
It sends a clear message that applying for international protection is not a back door to economic migration. The 40 per cent reduction in international protection applications in 2025 indicates this message is being heard.
We have legitimate, structured pathways for economic migration. Respecting this distinction is a matter of fairness to the persecuted and essential to maintaining public trust in the system.
The same resolve is being applied to our accommodation strategy. Our new direction is focused on state-owned solutions that deliver value for money for taxpayers. We need to move away from the emergency use of hotels to a more sustainable and cost-efficient State accommodation model.
A rules-based system demands firm enforcement. For those whose claims are found to be without merit after a comprehensive and robust process, the consequences are voluntary returns or deportations. More than double the number of deportation orders have been signed this year compared with those signed in the same period last year – 3,029 compared with 1,400.
I derive no pleasure from deporting people, but it is the right thing to do. It is a necessary and principled stand, supported by the UNHCR, to maintain the integrity of our asylum system.
Unquestionably Ireland has been enhanced by immigration, so we must seek to avoid the divisive and toxic debate which has developed in other parts of the world on this topic.
Balancing competing rights is complex and often contested, but I am committed to delivering a coherent, and fair justice system for all.
