Asylum seekers will no longer have an automatic right to a full oral hearing if they appeal an international protection refusal.
The proposal to dramatically reduce the average time of the appeals process forms part of proposed new legislation which will lead to the most radical reform of immigration law in a generation.
The new draft legislation is being brought to Cabinet on Tuesday by Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan.
The Bill will also give effect in Irish law to the EU Migration and Asylum Pact, which will start in 2026. The pact, which Ireland has fully adopted, will introduce a wide number of restrictive measures to limit the number of immigrants gaining access to the European Union.
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Mr O’Callaghan is expected to tell ministerial colleagues that the Bill will fast-track the appeals process for international protection applications. The aim of the Bill is to reduce the entire process from several years to a matter of months.
At present, appeals on applications that have been refused can take as long as 14 months, with an average of almost nine months for all cases. The introduction of a process without oral hearings – save in exceptional cases – is likely to lead to a significant shortening of the process.
Mr O’Callaghan has stated since becoming Minister that he wants the entire process of first-instance decisions and appeals to be completed within three months.
Already there is an accelerated processing system for people from designated safe countries of origin, those from countries with the largest number of applicants, and people who already received protection elsewhere in Europe. Decisions for this cohort take an average of three months to complete.
The draft Bill proposes the establishment of a new appeals board, the Second Instance Body (SIB).
The memorandum for Cabinet is understood to set out a situation where the SIB shall make its decision without holding an oral hearing, except for limited circumstances.
The extremely limited opportunity to avail of an oral hearing is designed to reduce considerably the amount of time the appeal hearing will take.
If enacted, the new law will not affect the process for those who have already made applications before the Bill is commenced. Those will still be able to avail of the existing appeals systems.
The current international protection system is not working effectively, with decisions taking far too long, Mr O’Callaghan is expected to tell Cabinet.
Besides the streamlining of decisions, a new ‘Border procedure’ with a three-month time limit for decisions is also proposed. Applicants for international protection will be brought to a screening centre which will be seen as a one-stop shop to register and lodge applications, and complete relevant checks. Once the process has been completed they will not be subject to detention but may be allocated to stay in a specified geographic area.
The introduction of an accelerated procedure for applicants from ‘safe’ countries, and those from the two countries with most applications, has led to a marked fall in the numbers of applications, especially since the middle of 2024.
Up to April 27th this year, a total of 3,947 people had applied for asylum in Ireland during 2025. This represents a fall of 42 per cent on the number of applications for the same period last year.
Speaking to reporters before the Cabinet meeting Taoiseach Micheál Martin called the overhaul of the international protection system the “the most significant reform in decades” saying it will “streamline and accelerate” the process.
He said the proposals being considered would give legislative effect in Ireland to the EU Migration and Asylum Pact.
Mr Martin said: “There has been a lot of improvement made in terms of initial applications and the turnaround time for those applications but clearly when it comes to oral hearings and so on it’s been far too long, far too delayed and there’s a need to streamline that as well and the minister is very focused now on that aspect of it”
Mr Martin said: “Up to 80 per cent of people who have applied have been found not to be eligible for asylum. So there is a need for a much more accelerated timeline and processing in the interests of everybody.”
