The Department of Justice is considering holding "high-risk" asylum seekers in detention centres while their claims are fast-tracked.
It is understood that a section of the new Thornton Hall prison site in Dublin may be used to detain such asylum seekers.
Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell made the announcement at a conference in Dublin yesterday hosted by the Law Society.
In his speech, Mr McDowell also said he was considering citizenship and language tests for immigrants.
"We have a liberal citizenship law but granting citizenship to someone who has little or no understanding of the Irish nation or State and little or no capacity linguistically to participate in the day to day democratic life of the community is questionable."
Speaking on the forthcoming Immigration and Residence Protection Bill, he said he was "looking seriously" at including provisions similar to those operating in the UK, where a selected number of asylum applicants are detained until their claims are fully processed.
It remains unclear whether children will be detained at such centres.
Though a department spokeswoman denied speculation that Thornton Hall would be used as one of the centres, a senior source within the department said the option of a "corner of Thornton Hall being sectioned off" for the purpose was being examined.
A department spokeswoman confirmed that senior officials had recently travelled to Yarls Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire in England and Schipol detention centre in the Netherlands.
Mr McDowell told journalists that abuse of the asylum system had to be challenged and detention centres here would be used to accommodate asylum applicants "at high risk" of being found to have a groundless claim.
"If a person is a high-risk applicant they can't expect to come into the State and make an official application and then disappear into Irish society".
Asked which countries "high-risk" applicants came from, he said: "There are a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa."
He said such "high-risk" applicants would be identified by the department official receiving their claim. They would then be taken to a detention centre where their claim would be processed by lawyers and officials on-site within 48 working hours.
It would mean such applicants would have their claims processed within six working days. The use of such centres would also mean failed asylum seekers would be removed quickly, with less risk of them "disappearing" if a deportation order is served.
The announcement was criticised by the Green Party, which said it was an attempt to divert attention away from the current system, which was failing asylum seekers.
Describing it as a "crass attack on the most vulnerable", Green Party justice spokesman Ciarán Cuffe said asylum seekers needed "care and assistance, rather than concrete holding pens".
The use of detention centres for asylum seekers elsewhere has been criticised, with some saying it amounts to imprisonment without charge.
Mr McDowell said Ireland had a "liberal asylum regime" and stressed the "same high standards of procedural fairness will apply [in detention centres] as to normal investigations and no-one will be sent away from the State who has a genuine entitlement to protection here".
It was also announced at the conference that provisions would be included in the forthcoming Bill to charge people who must be removed from the State with the costs of their removal.
