The Master of the High Court has said those making decisions about refugees often fail to make a proper fact-based assessment of credibility. Mr Edmund Honohan SC says this is clear from an examination of the cases coming before the High Court.
He has told The Irish Times there are now about 400 applicants for refugee status on the High Court judicial review list. The Master of the High Court deals with preliminary and procedural matters before cases go to hearing.
Most of the cases on the list concern decisions of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, but some relate to procedures at the stage of deportation after a failed asylum application, he adds.
"If an application for asylum is refused, the applicant may appeal to the Refugee Appeals Tribunal and the decision of the tribunal member is final," he says.
"The High Court, however, may be asked to review the decision where some illegality or procedural unfairness is alleged and, if the decision is quashed, the tribunal must rehear the appeal."
The application for refugee status turns on whether the applicant's fear of persecution is well founded. Because the applicants have to rely on their own history, their credibility has to be adjudicated by sifting and weighing the various facts asserted. The decision is not discretionary, Mr Honohan stresses, it is facts-based.
"A clear pattern is emerging in which the High Court is granting leave to proceed to a full review in many cases involving prima facie failure to make a clear finding as to credibility, or to give reasons for such finding or making a finding without assessing credibility in the context of all the applicant's evidence [ including explanations for inconsistencies or material changes] and country of origin information otherwise available," he said.
Other cases now on the list, he says, include those claiming unreasonableness involving unsupported findings without factual basis, clear factual inaccuracies and inconsistencies or omissions.
A significant number of cases have been settled, Mr Honohan adds, meaning that the State has acknowledged the substance of the applicant's claim.
A solicitor dealing with a large number of refugee cases agreed. "There are invariably 15 or 20 cases settled at each call-over," says Mr Brendan Toale of McGeehan and Toale.
About one in five of his cases was won when they went on to full hearing, he says. Frequently this was because of mistakes of fact made by the tribunal in rejecting the application.
A spokesman for the Minister for Justice said qualified barristers apply for the Refugee Appeals Tribunal and are appointed by the Minister. The most recent appointments were Mr David Andrews and Mr Michael O'Kennedy, by the former minister, Mr John O'Donoghue.