Gardai are today set to continue a new crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Further arrests are expected following the detention of 16 people by detectives from Ireland's National Bureau of Immigration.
Police sources said the moves were part of an operation to halt a bid to sabotage the country's asylum process through the submission of bogus applications from foreign nationals.
All of the men and women held throughout the weekend were facing early deportation after being arrested in police swoops in Dublin, Cork and Co Clare and kept in custody in Dublin's Mountjoy jail and a number of Garda stations.
Deportation awards relating to those detained - four Nigerians and 12 people from eastern Europe - were understood to have been in existence for some time, but all were understood to have lodged new, false applications to stay in the State.