A child asylum seeker has filed proceedings alleging bias against a member of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal. This is the second time that a member of the tribunal has been faced with an allegation of bias. In the previous case, the person in question resigned from their position with the tribunal.
Solicitor Gerard Cullen of Carrick-on-Shannon is taking the present case on the child applicant’s behalf. In his affidavit, he states that “the tribunal member in question rejected all the cases decided by him in 2009 and did so in virtually identical terms, despite differences in the circumstances of the individuals before him.
He stated further that “there are very wide divergences in the volumes of assignment of cases to tribunal members and there are no reasons advanced for such gross variations. The fact of the high rejection rate of the Irish tribunal by international standards and the fact of the payment on a commission ‘piece rate’ basis of members [means] that one can rationally entertain a perception of bias by the tribunal.”
However, in a separate article in the Irish Times, it is reported that allegations of bias against the Tribunal are all too familiar. Originally established in 2000 to deal with first instance refugee status appeals, the Tribunal is comprised of 35 members who are appointed by the Minister for Justice. Members must be a solicitor or barrister with at least five years post-qualification experience, and they are paid case by case.
The Tribunal’s operations was first challenged in the case of A Ors v The Refugee Appeals Tribunal where the plaintiff challenged the refusal of eight applications for information on previous decisions. This decision was subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court.
Mr Justice MacMenamin stated in the High Court judgment in that case that the Tribunal’s position was “unique in the common law world and cannot accord with the principles of natural and constitutional justice, fairness of procedure or equality of arms having regard to the importance and significance of the issues to the applicants which falls to be determined in this quasi-judicial process.”
Click here to see an article by the Irish Times on the case.
Click here to see a separate article by the Irish Times.