THE IRISH HUMAN Rights Commission is seeking a Supreme Court challenge on a case against the State over asylum seeker human rights.

The Commission is appealing the overturning of the decision against the State by the Court of Appeal. The case concerned the State’s obligation to provide asylum seekers with accommodation 

In the initial case against the State in August 2024, the High Court ruled that the State had breached the human rights of 2,807 single male International Protection (IP) applicants by failing to provide accommodation for them. 

The State ran out of public accommodation for asylum seekers two years ago and increased payments and provided temporary shelter, such as tents, to those who arrived by themselves and were without housing.

At the time, tents were set up in places like Grand Canal in Dublin, the cost of preventing which reached almost €800,000. Asylum seekers also resided in tented accommodation provided in Crooksling, Co Dublin, where concerns were raised last November about the impact of freezing temperatures.

In July 2025, the Court of Appeal overturned this decision. The court ruled that the Commission had not provided adequate evidence to prove that the men’s physical or mental health was undermined or that they were in a state of degradation incompatible with human dignity.

Today, the Commission has applied to the Supreme Court for permission to appeal this more recent decision. The Supreme Court will now consider whether it will hear the Commission’s appeal.

In the overturning of the decision in July, the court accepted that people seeking international protection in Ireland could be classified as being in extreme material poverty, on account of testimony from 13 asylum seekers who claimed the lack of services had an impact on the status of their health.

However, the judge disagreed that the group’s health issues, as a result of a lack of services, were representative of all applicants in similar positions.

Since December 2023, “shortages of accommodation” have meant that single adult male asylum seekers are not guaranteed accommodation. 

Last month, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that the Irish Government cannot use housing shortages as an excuse for not providing adequate accommodation for asylum seekers. 

This was off the back of a case taken by two IP applicants and was referred to the ECJ by the High Court. The decision in the ECJ case was given two days after the Court of Appeal overturned the ruling against the Irish state.

In February 2024, the UN refugee agency called on the Irish Government to end asylum seeker homelessness and use of tents.

In a report, UNHCR made a number of recommendations including ending asylum seeker homelessness, eliminating the use of tents and eliminating the reliance on emergency accommodation.