A High Court judge has said it was entirely foreseeable that a legal challenge would be brought against the State after a Government decision last month to pause offers of accommodation to some asylum seekers.
Mr Justice Charles Meenan made the comments in an application by an Afghan man who has been sleeping on the streets since arriving in Ireland at the end of last month. The man has been attacked, robbed and racially abused while sleeping rough, the court was told.
The man has applied to the High Court for mandatory orders requiring the State to provide him with basic accommodation as required by an EU directive.
He is also seeking a declaration from the court that a failure to provide accommodation is unlawful and any delay is unreasonable.
The outcome of the case could have wider implications for the system of accommodating international protection applicants.
Mr Justice Meenan refused to adjourn the case until Monday as requested by lawyers for the State, instead requesting a response from the State by Friday afternoon.
The judge said that while there were legal issues involved, there were also the man's circumstances, which were "pretty dire".
However, he said that while the State was under various legal duties to provide accommodation, he was also aware that making a mandatory order was a very grave step to take.
The court was told the man had arrived in Ireland on 28 January last and slept outside the International Protection Office for two nights until it opened on Monday 30 January. He applied for international protection and sought material reception conditions and in particular accommodation.
He was told there was no accommodation available and was advised to stay with friends or relatives. He informed the IPO that he had no friends or family in Ireland. He was given a €25 voucher, with which he bought blankets and a pillow.
After repeated requests to International Protection Housing Services, the man was told there was no accommodation available amid a national shortage and informed he would be contacted if housing became available, but was not given a timeline.
The man then sought help from the Irish Refugee Council Independent Law Centre, which is assisting him with his case.
Judge Meenan said it was "entirely foreseeable" that the State would be faced with such an application when "the step was taken", referring to the decision to pause offers of accommodation to those arriving into the country without children.
When the case first came before the judge yesterday, he had asked to be provided with information on any accommodation provided by charities.
Today, the judge said in the context of an application for a mandatory order: "You can't have a situation where charities are being obliged to carry out the duties which are imposed by law on the State".
The judge said it seemed to him that the State was under various legal duties to provide accommodation and was not doing so.
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Senior Counsel for the State David Conlan Smyth told the judge that the State was taking the case very seriously and he was seeking an adjournment of the application for an interlocutory injunction until Monday.
Mr Conlan Smyth said the pressure on the State in relation to accommodation for international protection applicants was "immense and unprecedented" and all available to the IPAS was filled and vacancies were being allocated on a chronological basis. He said there was a reasonable prospect that the applicant in this case would be offered accommodation sometime next week.
He said IPAS was currently accommodating 19,104 people while last year the figure was 8,500. In addition, there were 54,000 Ukrainian refugees being accommodated by the State, he said.
He said the Department of Children was "working on it night and day" but procurement was an issue at the moment and the overflow facility in Citywest had ceased taking applicants on 19 of January, partly due to a public order issue.
However, every family or single female arriving in the country had been accommodated but unfortunately the same could not be said for single males, he said.
Mr Conlan Smyth said there would be a "real impact on the system" if a mandatory order was made to accommodate the applicant in this case as it would result in him being accommodated ahead of someone else. He said it was a temporary crisis which has not been faced by the State before.
Senior Counsel for the man, Colm O'Dwyer, told the court that while he understood the difficulties faced by the Minister for Children, every day of an adjournment was an extra day on the streets for the man.
He said it was clear that while emergency type accommodation for asylum seekers was full, that did not mean all accommodation was full and the minster could get access to hotel or other accommodation.
"We are talking about the most basic level of accommodation, something that gets him off the street," he said.
The case returns to court on Friday.
In his application to the court, the man said he was a shopkeeper in Afghanistan who had trouble from the Taliban before they took power. After an incident near his shop where some Taliban fighters were killed by the police, he was sent death threats and decided to leave.
He crossed the border into Iran in August 2021 and later arrived in Turkey, where he worked in a clothes factory for six months. He then crossed into Bulgaria and walked to Serbia where he spent seven months before traveling to France in a container and spending seven months in the migrant camp in Calais known as "the jungle".
He was transported to Ireland in a container that left Cherbourg and arrived here on 28 January.
In judicial review proceedings, the man's lawyers say Ireland opted into the EU Reception Conditions Directive in 2018 and transposed the Reception Conditions Regulations, committing to providing accommodation to all applicants for international protection.
They say the failure to provide accommodation is in breach of the Directive and Regulations and a breach of the State's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
