Kinvara residents fail in application to challenge decision to accommodate asylum seekers at hotel

High Court reporters

Several residents of a Co Galway village have failed in their bid to bring High Court proceedings challenging the Government’s decision to house international protection applicants at a local hotel.

Kinvara residents Ruth Sexton, Mary Boyce, Chris Hartnett Dalton and Paul Collins had sought the court’s permission to challenge the decision in March to place up to 98 people in the Merriman Hotel, which is currently home to about 50 Ukrainian people.

The Merriman Hotel has accommodated international protection applicants since 2019, but, the residents contended, the Government’s decision in March constituted a fresh designation of the building as international protection accommodation.

In designating a premise as an accommodation centre, the Minister for Integration is obliged to have regard for public interest, among other considerations, under a statutory instrument provided for in the European Communities (Reception Conditions) Regulations 2018.

The residents argued that the Minister was in breach of this obligation in their alleged designation of the building in March.

In a judgment, Ms Justice Marguerite Bolger said the decision in March to accommodate 98 people at the Merriman Hotel was not a fresh designation of the premises, and therefore, the statutory instrument did not apply. The hotel was clearly designated in 2019, when international protection applicants were first accommodated there, the judge said.

The judge said it was not possible to judicially review the decision complained of by the residents.

Ms Justice Bolger said she was not satisfied the residents had presented arguable grounds on which their case would succeed, and denied their application to bring the proceedings.

The judge noted that there was no legal obligation on the Minister to consult residents or prepare an assessment of how its decision might impact local businesses, or the availability of a local venue for family events, or the availability of social services where a premises has already been designated as international protection accommodation.

The judge said the Government’s decision in March is mainly grounded in the State’s obligation to provide accommodation to those seeking asylum.

“The [residents] accept that the State has a legal obligation to provide accommodation for applicants for international protection but seem to ask the court to prioritise their personal interest in having a hotel in their locality to accommodate tourists and provide a local venue for their family events over the State’s attempt to comply with those national, European and international obligations,” the judge said.

The case is listed before the judge later this week.

The residents – Ms Sexton, of Sexton’s Bar, Main Street, Kinvara; Ms Boyce, of Cathercon, Kinvara, Mr Hartnett Dalton, of Northampton, Kinvara; and Mr Collins, of Crushoa, Kinvara – had sought to bring proceedings against the Minister for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability and Integration and the Minister for the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration.