Up to 60 immigration officers at Dublin airport will come under the responsibility of the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) within weeks.
The move is part of efforts to streamline the immigration service, under which the bureau will eventually have responsibility for Garda personnel at Dublin and Dun Laoghaire ports as well.
Gardai operating as immigration officers at ports and airports are currently attached mainly to local Garda stations rather than the GNIB.
Figures released by the Department of Justice last week show that 5,852 people were refused entry to Ireland by immigration officers last year. Almost half of these - 2,735 - were refused because they had no valid documents, with a further 1,397 refused on the grounds that they had no valid visa.
Fourteen people with valid Irish entry visas were refused permission to enter the State and detained overnight or longer in places of detention.
Nearly two-thirds of the 10,938 people who sought recognition as refugees last year made their applications at the office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner in Lower Mount Street, Dublin.
Some 13 per cent of these asylum-seekers applied at Rosslare port and 3 per cent applied at Dublin port. Just under 15 per cent made their asylum claims at Dublin airport, 7 per cent at Shannon airport and 1.4 per cent at Cork air and sea ports.
The total number of people deported last year was 187. These included 147 people whose application for refugee status was rejected, 35 illegal immigrants and five asylum-seekers returned to another EU state for their claims for refugee status to be processed there.