The High Court has dismissed a challenge by a Ukrainian couple to laws which ended their disability and carer’s allowances while they remained in State-funded full-board hotel accommodation in Dublin.
A.A. and B.B. fled Ukraine in 2022 and received temporary protection in Ireland. A.A., who is wheelchair-bound, had been receiving disability allowance. B.B., who cares for her and also has health problems, received carer’s allowance.
Their hotel was designated as an accommodation centre in September 2024 under legislative changes introduced that year. From 22 October, they ceased receiving those allowances. Each instead received a weekly extra-statutory payment of €38.80, while the State also paid €70 per week directly to the hotel for each resident’s compulsory meal contribution.
The couple argued that the changes breached the constitutional guarantee of equality and Ireland’s obligations under the EU Temporary Protection Directive. They said comparable residents continued to receive statutory social welfare payments.
Mr Justice Alexander Owens rejected those claims. He held that the Oireachtas was entitled to distinguish between people receiving State-funded serviced accommodation and those who had to meet their own food, utility and housing-related costs. The court found no evidence that the legislative objective was to force the couple from their accommodation, as they alleged.
The judge also held that Article 13.2 of the Directive requires necessary social welfare and means of subsistence, but does not oblige Member States to provide temporary protection beneficiaries with the same disability and carer’s allowances available under domestic law to citizens or other residents.
The court further rejected B.B.’s challenge to the refusal of an exceptional-needs payment. It found that decision-makers could direct him towards existing health and accommodation supports and that statutory review mechanisms remained available.
The judicial review application was dismissed. The judge’s provisional view was that the State should receive its costs, subject to any contrary application within three weeks.