NON-EU immigrants have been hit with a 50% increase in the cost of registering their presence in Ireland. The cost of acquiring an immigration card rose from €100 to €150 last week, when the government replaced standard ID cards with a biometric version containing fingerprints.

The additional fee will raise €7.5m from the 150,000 people affected, while the total revenue from registration will exceed €20m in a full year. More than 1,500 non-EU nationals have already been issued with new ID cards, with a further 148,500 expected to register in the coming year.

Immigration officials say they are currently processing and fingerprinting approximately 200 people a day at the headquarters of the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) at Burgh Quay in Dublin.

Among those applying for cards are Brazilian factory workers and junior doctors from Asia, who are required by law to register with the immigration service.

“Nobody has complained about the fee increase yet, either because many are unaware of it or don’t want to bring trouble on themselves by asking too many questions,” said one immigration official. “Irish people would certainly complain if they were asked to pay such an amount.”

The price increase is the latest government measure affecting non-EU citizens in Ireland. The cost of becoming a citizen also increased by almost 50% this month. It now costs €950 for an adult and €200 for a child.

Denise Charlton, chief executive of the Immigrant Council of Ireland, described the price hike as excessive. “This new registration fee will be particularly felt by work-permit holders from outside the EU who arrive here with families,” she said. “A work-permit holder with a dependent spouse and a child over the age of 16 years will not only be paying €1,000 for the two-year permit, but also €450 a year to register with the GNIB. It’s simply too expensive.”

Charlton is also concerned that details of the new fee appeared on the GNIB website without advance notice or publicity.

“I believe it will have a detrimental impact on the number of foreign students who travel here from countries such as China. They generate €900m a year and I think we should not do anything that makes it more expensive for non-EU nationals to reside and study in Ireland,” she said.

Michael Begley, the director of Spirasi, a voluntary organisation that offers support to migrants, said the fee would discourage migrants from registering and encourage some to work in the black economy.

“People who travel to Ireland to gain employment can’t really afford to pay €150 to register and then buy a work permit on top of that. I think it’s fair to charge people to register but it should not be excessive. After all, many of these same people will end up paying tax,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Dermot Ahern, the justice minister, said the increase in registration fees was necessary. “The administration costs associated with running the system are substantial and this is reflected in the increased fee,” she said.

“The practice internationally is to charge for the issuing of resident permits. The costs involved include those of the high-tech cards. The provision of such high-quality identification cards is an expensive process.”

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