The High Court has refused to require a deported international protection applicant to provide €15,000 security for costs before pursuing judicial review proceedings.
GT is challenging a February 2025 decision by the International Protection Office refusing ministerial consent for him to make a subsequent international protection application, and a March 2025 International Protection Appeals Tribunal decision dismissing his appeal.
He was deported from Ireland in March 2025 under a deportation order dated May 2023. He had unsuccessfully sought an injunction preventing that removal.
The respondents argued that because GT now lives outside Ireland and because of what they described as his previous litigation conduct, there was a risk that any eventual costs order would not be paid. They sought €15,000, which the judgment records was less than the likely full costs of the judicial review.
GT accepted for the purpose of the application that he was resident outside the jurisdiction and that the respondents had a prima facie defence. However, he argued that he could not afford the security and that imposing it would prevent his case from being heard.
Ms Justice Marguerite Bolger held that residence abroad does not automatically justify security for costs. The court had to consider which outcome created the lesser risk of injustice.
The judge found special circumstances. GT had been living in Ireland when he commenced the proceedings and only became resident abroad because he was deported. The decisions he seeks to challenge are connected to the legal position underlying that deportation.
The court also referred to assurances given during the earlier injunction hearing that, if GT ultimately succeeded, he could potentially seek revocation of the deportation order and pursue further protection procedures.
Requiring security would therefore effectively determine the judicial review against him without its merits being considered. The application was refused, with an indicative view that GT should receive his costs of the security application.