A recent deportation flight to Pakistan carried 79 officers of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na for just 24 asylum seekers, more than three times as many Garda\u00ed as deportees, according to Social Democrats justice spokesperson Gary Gannon.<\/p>\n
Deputy Gannon said:<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce again, the State has spent lavishly – not on housing or social supports – but on political theatre.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe operation also reportedly cost around \u20ac474,000, roughly \u20ac20,000 per person.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have consistently asked parliamentary questions and, during the Justice Committee, directly challenged the government on why they continue to insist on posting photos of these deportations.<\/p>\n
\u201cTime and again, the only way to extract even the most basic information is through these questions and only after the Government has already staged the images for social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we see here is not rigorous public policy; it is stunt-driven bureaucracy, wasting taxpayers\u2019 money for the sake of a tough-on-immigration photo-op.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt must be made abundantly clear that for most of the people on that flight, it was a story of lives lived in Ireland for years – families, homes, perhaps children in school. Yet they are being removed to create a spectacle no doubt intended for public consumption, not efficiency or justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is part of a broader pattern: the recycling of government-issued images of deportations, the charters, the Garda staging, all of which point to a continued streak of performative cruelty rather than any serious plan for humane migration policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of investing in social housing, integration supports, or fair asylum processing, we get this wasteful display: hundreds of thousands of euros spent on a half empty plane, for the sake of conservative optics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public deserves transparency; the most vulnerable cohort in our society deserve dignity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis government\u2019s showboating is not only morally bankrupt, it is a misuse of public funds at a time when people across Ireland are struggling with housing, inflation, and a lack of support. If we cannot muster the decency or the sense to treat human beings with respect, then we should at least stop wasting money just to prove a point.\u201d<\/p>\n
December 8th, 2025<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A recent deportation flight to Pakistan carried 79 officers of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na for just 24 asylum seekers, more than three times as many Garda\u00ed as deportees, according to Social Democrats justice spokesperson Gary Gannon. Deputy Gannon said: \u201cOnce again, the State has spent lavishly – not on housing or social supports – but on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11685,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316,528,411],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gary-gannon","category-immigration","category-justice"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n