The Government has drawn up a battle plan to close Ireland’s ‘open door’ to illegal immigration, with a Cabinet minister warning this weekend that Ireland can no longer be ‘a soft touch’.

The source admitted that immigration is fuelling the housing crisis and placing a growing strain on health and education services and will have to be tackled head-on.

The multi-faceted plan is outlined in confidential Department of Justice documents obtained by the Irish Mail on Sunday.

The scale of the Government’s focus on illegal immigration is laid bare in a secret agenda prepared for a high-level meeting attended by Minister O’Callaghan, his junior ministers and the top civil servants in the Department of Justice.

Almost half of the 86 items listed on the ‘MinMac’ document focus on what one senior Department of Justice source described as the Coalition’s ‘illegal immigration battle plan’.

In one section, highlighted in red under the heading ‘A Fairer But Firmer System’, the Department briefing notes plans to:

•  Significantly increase the number of border security staff – known by gardaí as ‘immigration spies’ – and Garda Airport Liaison Officers (ALO);
• Hit airlines and ferry companies that fail to comply with obligations to carry out passenger immigration checks with huge fines;
• Increase spot checks – described as ‘doorstep operations’ – on passengers arriving at the country’s airports;
• Withdraw accommodation from asylum seekers who ‘fail to comply’ with the international protection process ‘or where they have engaged in serious criminal behaviour’.

Details of the battle plan have emerged after Taoiseach Micheál Martin this week broke an unspoken taboo among the main parties, when he directly linked immigration to rising homeless figures and said in the Dáil that ‘less than 50 per cent’ of people in hostels and sleeping rough are ‘Irish citizens’.

There are also concerns that immigration is heaping more pressure on chronic prison overcrowding, described as a ‘national scandal’ at the Prison Officers’ Association annual conference this week.

Separate documents seen by the MoS show Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan – who this week acknowledged recent governments have failed to increase prison capacity in line with population rises – oversaw a secret charter flight to deport 33 criminals who amassed more than 1,000 criminal charges between them back to Poland and Lithuania.

A Cabinet source said of the Government’s tougher approach on immigration: ‘We acknowledge that we have been complacent on this issue in the past. There have been riots, protests, blockades and attacks on citizens all linked to immigration. We all know we have to get tough.’

They added: ‘This is the great matter of the day and Ireland can’t be a soft touch anymore.’

Despite deep divisions between the Coalition parties on other issues, a Fine Gael Cabinet source said ‘we are all behind O’Callaghan’s “draconian” immigration strategy’.

The tougher approach is likely to spark tensions with airlines, who were hit with a total of €1.9million in Carrier Liability Fines last year.

This was an increase on €1.7million fines issued in 2024, and €1.48million the previous year. However, the number of individual fines – which increased from €1,500 to €2,500 in August 2024 – actually fell from 874 issued in 2024 to 760 last year.

The number of people charged or summoned ‘for arriving in the State without a valid passport’ also fell sharply from 162 in 2024 to just 15 last year, according to figures provided by An Garda Síochána.

However, in a move that could provoke a backlash from carriers, the Department signalled its intention to increase its level of fines to airlines and ferry operators.

Section 17.5 of the agenda notes plans to: ‘Increase fines for airlines and ferry companies that fail to comply with their obligations to ensure that each person they carry in to the country has a valid passport of valid documentation.’

The documents go on to state that this lack of enforcement is causing an ‘abuse’ of the Common Travel Area with the UK.

Perhaps foreseeing stormy meetings with the likes of Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary, the document notes: ‘Consultation process with carriers will also be necessary.’

Indicating new layers of bureaucracy to the process, it adds: ‘Carrier liability guidance material that aims to assist carriers fulfil their obligations is being finalised.

The documents also imply an EU-wide crackdown on transport carriers.

‘Data collection of a period of one calendar year is being analysed to establish the effect on carrier compliance,’ they state. ‘An evaluation done by the EU Commission of carrier liability provisions in the State is due to be issued which will require consideration and any potential impact on the approach to fines.’

The same section also highlights increasing cooperation between gardaí and British police forces to improve border security.

It states: ‘There is significant ongoing operational co-operation between the Gardaí, UK Border Force, UK policing services and the Police Service of Northern Ireland to protect against abuse of the Common Travel Area (CTA). The Department [of Justice] continues to engage with An Garda Síochána and the Garda National Immigration Bureau on appropriate operational responses to CTA exploitation. This will be further informed by the development of the Border Security Strategy.’

Section 17.6 of the agenda says the Government will ‘expand the number of Garda Airline Liaison Officers posted at overseas airports to prevent irregular migration’. Officials in the departments of Justice and Foreign Affairs are currently in negotiations with foreign governments and agencies to increase the number of these liaison officers.

The briefing notes state: ‘At present, there are two Garda ALO deployed to high-risk embarkation points. Expansion of additional ALO to other embarkation points is under continual review but is subject to the cooperation and agreement of law enforcement agencies in other jurisdictions.’

A Department of Justice source last night told the MoS: ‘Having only two of these ALO is a clear example of where the expansion has to come. They are highly successful. Since so many of our bogus asylum seekers and illegal immigrants come from the same few places, we have to get our people there.’

Section 17.3 of the documents also signals plans to ‘place the Border Management Unit on a statutory footing’.

The MoS has learned that the new Border Management Unit (BMU) will also be funded with a significant expansion of resources and personnel.

According to the documents, the Coalition will ‘develop a border security strategy to deliver stronger border security, including the Border Management Unit; An Garda Síochána; Revenue; other relevant international partners, to counter threats from terrorism, organised crime and human trafficking’.

In response to queries, the Department of Justice said 2,068 spot checks or ‘doorstep operations’ were carried out by the BMU in the first three months of the year.

This is tracking to be an increase on the 7,447 doorsteps in 2025 and 7,325 in 2024.

A spokeswoman said the BMU and An Garda Síochána ‘have an ongoing intelligence-led programme of operations at airplanes to detect passengers who destroyed documents in-flight and to identify the point of embarkation of undocumented passengers’.

She confirmed that, up to the end of March, 422 people were recorded arriving at Dublin Airport without correct documentation. Last year the number was 2,067, down from the 2,297 recorded in 2024.

john.lee@mailonsunday.ie