The Irish Government is set to review payments made to migrants.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe indicated the review is set to take place “within weeks”.
He told RTE the Government wants to assess why people are coming to Ireland – in line with how other countries do it.
“Obviously, the context of all of this is the number of people who are coming to Ireland has increased very considerably over the last number of months,” he said.
“This is happening to other countries as well. But this will be worked within weeks, and I know the Government will act quickly.”
He was speaking as the latest encampment of tents being used by international protection applicants continued to grow over the weekend around Grand Canal in Dublin.
A nearby gathering of tents was removed last week from Mount Street.
In an article in the Sunday Independent, Taoiseach Simon Harris said Ireland needs to adopt a firmer system on migration.
He said his coalition Government is “working together to pill levers in a number of Government departments to ensure Ireland adopts a firmer system and ensures we are not out of kilter with other EU countries”.
He wrote: “This will not be a long drawn-out process.
“The Government will take decisions on this soon.”
He said Ireland “will maintain a migration system that is fair, firm and enforced, but we will not be found wanting on our international obligations”.
The Taoiseach said the Government is working to bring in more facilities quickly on state land.
Speaking on RTE’s The Week In Politics, Labour TD Ged Nash claimed “tents appear to be Ireland’s Rwanda policy”.
He added: “He (the Taoiseach) shouldn’t feign surprise and act like a commentator when the Government policy is that they provide tents to asylum seekers that don’t have accommodation then act surprised when people decide that they’re going to decide to congregate together for their own safety.
“It seems to be, to some degree, tents appears now to be Ireland’s Rwanda policy. Some people seem to be quite comfortable with the reputational damage that has been done to Ireland – the vision of tents in Dublin city centre beamed into homes across the country.
“I’m deeply uncomfortable with what is happening at the moment. We need a state-led solution and targets to that.”
In the article, the Taoiseach went on to accuse Sinn Fein of “playing politics with migration”.
He wrote: “Having once called for an expansion of our asylum system and an increase in the number of refugees we accept, they are now distributing leaflets to households calling for an end of open borders.
“They’re saying it in their videos recorded outside the Dail. With a straight face, Mary-Lou McDonald says she opposes open borders, conveniently missing the 500km between Lough Foyle and Carlingford that we have fought to keep open on this island.
“The Irish people need to know Sinn Fein are speaking out of both sides of their mouths and shouldn’t get away with it.”
Also speaking on RTE’s The Week In Politics, Sinn Fein TD Louise O’Reilly said she believes “the Taoiseach needs to reflect on how he is representing the Sinn Fein position”.
She said: “Nobody in the Dail, no political party, not mine nor any other, is suggesting that it is possible or indeed desirable to police a 500km long border with 250-plus crossings.
“What people want, what my party wants, is a system that is fair, that is enforced and that is efficient.
“The system that we have at the moment is not fair, it is not enforced and it is not efficient, and people can see all around them the abject failure of the Government to plan.”
