Increasing allowances for asylum seekers who leave the country voluntarily could be a way to make the immigration system more efficient, Paschal Donohoe has said.

The Finance Minister was commenting after it was reported on Saturday that Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan is to increase the allowance to €2,500 for individuals and €10,000 for families. Mr Donohoe was asked about the report in the Irish Times as he joined Fine Gael colleagues on Saturday at a conference in Carlow the party hosted for small and medium-sized businesses.

“I understand Minister O’Callaghan is looking at this at the moment,” he said. “We know that deportations do play an important role in relation to having a fair and efficient migration system in place.

“But it’s also costly, it also takes a lot of time to actually make them happen. I understand what Minister O’Callaghan is doing is looking at is there other ways in which we could ensure that those who will be leaving Ireland at some point in the future, do so in a more timely and a more efficient way.

“This is a decision that he’s able to make inside his own budget. We, overall, as a Government believe that having an open economy and an open society is enormously positive.

“It’s really important for the growth of our economy, really important for our society to continue to grow, but, at the same time, we do need to have migration rules that are clear and well implemented, and this appears to be a way in which that can be further delivered.”

Minister Donohoe also insisted the Government had not made any decision on changing the income threshold criteria for carer’s allowance. The Irish Independent reported on Saturday that the reform of the carer’s allowance is set to be a key plank of the budget, with the move expected to result in thousands more people qualifying for the support.

“I can tell you no decisions have been made with regard to the budget,” he said. “And Minister (Jack) Chambers as Minister for Public Expenditure is now engaged in negotiations with all ministers in relation to specific matters, but how we support carers has always been a key focus of budgets that have been done.”

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