THE IRISH HUMAN Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has said it will contest an appeal by the State against a High Court judgement that found it had failed to provide for the basic needs of international protection applicants in hearings today and tomorrow.

The High Court ruled that the State is in breach of human rights law by failing to house almost 3,000 people who have sought international protection in Ireland since 2023.

The court made the ruling following a case taken by the IHREC. The UN Refugee Agency, the UNHCR, welcomed the ruling and called on the Irish Government to take “immediate action to provide accommodation to all asylum seekers”.

In his judgment, Justice Barry O’Donnell found that applicants for international protection in the Ireland have a “well-established fundamental right to have their human dignity respected and protected, including by being provided with an adequate standard of living which guarantees their subsistence and protects their physical and mental health where they do not have sufficient means to provide for themselves”.

The State lodged its appeal to overturn that ruling in November 2024, which the IHREC said it will fully contest. the State argued that it could not accommodate asylum seekers “at the drop of a hat” and that the number of asylum seekers and refugees in State accommodation had increased 11-fold in just two years.

When the Commission began its case in December 2023, there were 259 international protection applicants left unaccommodated. As of this week, 3,512 are awaiting an offer of accommodation by the State, the IHREC said. 

IHREC commissioner Liam Herrick said the commission maintains that “people applying for international protection have a right to adequate shelter and basic living conditions under national and EU law”.  

“We look forward to defending the High Court’s ruling and to assisting the Court of Appeal in its deliberation of these issues,” Herrick said.