People “on the left” often try to “shut down” debates around immigration, Tánaiste Simon Harris has said.

The Fine Gael leader was doubling down on comments he made earlier this week, wherein he told Gript that asylum numbers into Ireland were “too high”, in an apparent hardening of language around migration policy.

He also said that deportation order recipients who fail to leave the State should be detained, and that he was “open-minded” on whether the State should have exit checks to ensure that deportation order recipients leave the State.

For these comments, he received pushback from some opposition politicians, such as Gary Gannon TD of the Social Democrats, who accused Harris of going down a “Nigel Farage route”. Labour Party MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin described the comments from Harris as “disgraceful”.

Speaking to reporters at Custume Barracks in Athlone on Friday, Harris said that people “particularly on the left try to shut down” the debate around immigration.

He also said that overall migration figures, even aside from asylum figures, are also “too high”.

“More broadly, are migration numbers too high outside of international protection? I think they are as well. I think they’re separate discussions, but I think they are as well.”

He also said that it would be “irresponsible” to not discuss it.

“That does a huge disservice to the people of this country, to social cohesion and to inform the policy discussion in Ireland,” he said.

“Migration is a legitimate public policy point of consideration in our country and across the European Union.”

He said that the rejection of 80% of asylum applications in Ireland led him to believe that migration levels are too high, adding that this statistic “should raise a red flag for the government.”

“We can continue to go around and put fingers in ears and not listen to people if we want, but we can actually do what political leaders do – engage on topics.”

He also said during the same briefing that Ireland’s population was growing “at such a fast rate” that the public wonder if services are able to “catch up”.

“So mapping out, as [Enterprise Minister Peter Burke’s] Department does, where the critical skills needs are, and providing more work permits, visas, in that space – great,” he said.

“Fulfilling our international obligations under international protection – great. But if 8 of the 10 people who are seeking international protection don’t qualify, we have to say, what more can we do?”

He added that it was “common sense” to ask individuals who are employed while going through the IPAS system to pay rent. He said that plans to implement this were “very nearly ready”.

“I think it’s a sensible measure that if you come to this country, and you have no means, and you’re tied to international protection, we should be fully supporting you, absolutely,” he said.

“But if you come to our country and are working, of course, you should make some sort of contribution to the cost. That’s common sense. So I would push back with every fibre I have, at any suggestion from anybody, that talking about migration is doing anything other than actually helping social cohesion.”

Earlier this week, Harris’ remarks were backed up by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who said that 80% of asylum seekers coming to Ireland were false claimants and were, in fact, economic migrants. The Taoiseach also said he was open to the idea of having deportation hubs outside the EU to send failed asylum seekers offshore.