Yesterday, the Court of Appeal made an entirely sensible ruling in relation to the State’s duty towards asylum seekers, when it overturned a High Court decision that found the the State’s failure to provide accommodation for persons claiming asylum was a breach of said person’s fundamental right to dignity.
What is notable about this particular legal battle is that your taxes funded a case taken by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) which sought a mandatory order compelling the State to fulfill its legal obligations to accommodate asylum seekers, despite said state being in the middle of a housing emergency which has been exacerbated by both legal immigration and bogus asylum claims.
This asylum case was taken against the State but it was also funded by the state – or rather, by you and me – since the taxpayer funds the IHREC, with its members appointed by the President, Michael D. Higgins. A brother of the Tánaiste, Adam Harris, is currently a member, as is Liam Herrick, formerly of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the Irish Penal Reform Trust. The SocDems TD, Sinéad McGibney was previously Chair.
The Commission took the case even though the provisions being sought would play out in the real world to the disadvantage of the citizens of the state, because at a time when accommodation is in incredibly short supply it sought to compel the state to house asylum seekers during an extreme housing shortage – when no legal right to housing exists for Irish people.
The case involved the reception provided by the State for asylum seekers, after the Department of Integration announced in December 2023 that: “Despite intensive efforts to source emergency accommodation, the department is currently not in a position to provide accommodation to all international protection applicants due to the severe shortage.”
It added that Ireland is currently accommodating more than 100,000 people between those fleeing Ukraine and International Protection (IP) applicants.
Then Minister for Integration, Roderic O’Gorman, said that as the government had run out of beds, it would move to prioritise housing families and that it would “probably be male applicants without families who will be left unaccommodated”.
His department said that drop-in day services will be available to asylum seekers without accommodation, with facilities including hot showers, meals and laundry services seven days a week. Information on accessing health and other public services in Ireland would be provided, as well as a temporary increase of €75 per week in the Daily Expense Allowance paid to such persons, bringing that payment to €113.80 per week.
The department also added that Ireland was at the time currently accommodating more than 100,000 people between those fleeing Ukraine and International Protection (IP) applicants.
It goes without saying that the Minister involved is the same person that sent out a tweet in 8 languages telling the world that Ireland was pretty much a land of milk and honey when it came to supporting asylum applicants.
But if the state is overwhelmed because too many refugees and migrants have arrived in a short space of time, isn’t it better that that those coming here making asylum applications (with up to 80% of those not being valid) are aware of that situation before they come.
The IHREC, and the Refugee Council, insisted that there were human rights concerns and that the State had to somehow find accommodation – something it is increasingly failing to do for its own people – or be in breach of the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights which became legally binding after the Lisbon Treaty was passed.
The IHREC, then, sought to compel the State to provide accommodation for asylum seekers, even though the shortage of housing in the state has reached the point where we have record levels of homelessness. No such case has been taken by the IHREC in support of Irish people who are sleeping rough.
Last year, in ruling on the case, the High Court actually declined to grant that mandatory order, but it did rule that there was a breach of a male asylum seeker’s fundamental right to dignity under the charter due to the State’s failure to provide him with accommodation.
But yesterday, the Court of Appeal ruled that while the asylum seekers had been “placed in a situation of extreme material poverty”, the IHREC had failed to prove they are in “a state of degradation incompatible with human dignity”.
It is, of course, entirely dreadful that anyone living in this country finds themselves in the distressing situation where they are living on the streets, or in a tent, or without a home. And there is no escaping the fact that the State ‘s careless actions have been a major factor in bringing the situation to this point.
But it is just impractical and unfeasible – and also discriminatory in regard to the rights of our own citizens – to seek to compel the state to provide accommodation to asylum applicants when that accommodation simply isn’t there, and when so many Irish people are also homeless and increasingly unable to find a home of their own.
The IHREC is funded to the tune of between €7 and €8 million a year. The question that we should now be asking ourselves is whether we are happy to continue funding a Commission which seeks to compel the state to provide rights to asylum applicants above those recognised for Irish people?