The High Court ordered the Minister for Justice and Equality to establish a panel of registered medical practitioners for international protection applicants, after finding that a statutory panel required by law had not been set up.
Mr Justice Richard Humphreys made the order on 31 July 2020 in judicial review proceedings brought by an Albanian national whose identity is anonymised in the judgment. The court directed the Minister to establish the panel by 1 December 2020.
The applicant arrived in Ireland in January 2016 and sought refugee status. He said he had been targeted in Albania while serving as a police officer and suffered serious injuries in an alleged assassination attempt in 2013. Those are his claims as recounted in the judgment, not findings made by the court.
The applicant asked the International Protection Office (IPO) to consider a medical assessment under section 23 of the International Protection Act 2015. The section provides for nominated medical practitioners and states that the Minister “shall establish” a panel of practitioners. The court found that no panel had been established, a fact the respondents confirmed only during oral submissions on the final day of the hearing.
The judge rejected the respondents’ argument that establishing the panel was permissive. He said the absence of a panel prevented the IPO from fairly considering whether the applicant should be referred for an assessment. The court also found that the IPO had not expressly decided his request to dispense with a personal interview under section 35(8)(c), or given reasons for rejecting it.
The order requires the IPO to make and notify the applicant of an express decision on whether to dispense with the interview, with reasons for any refusal. It also requires the IPO to consider whether section 23 should be used in his case after a panel is established, and to notify him of that decision with reasons.
Further processing of the protection application was stayed until 28 days after both sets of requirements are met. The court did not decide the applicant’s protection claim or direct that he receive a medical examination. It also listed the matter for 25 August 2020, with liberty to apply about refinements to the order.