The High Court has rejected challenges by a Georgian couple to decisions refusing them international protection in Ireland.
In a judgment delivered on 1 December 2025, Mr Justice Sean Gillane held that I.A. and M.M. had not triggered the International Protection Appeals Tribunal's duty to cooperate in investigating whether Georgia was unsafe for them because of the religious faith of I.A.'s parents.
The couple married in May 2022, arrived in Ireland on 21 May and applied for international protection three days later. Their claims centred on threats and violence from members of M.M.'s family who opposed their relationship.
I.A. told protection officials that one factor in the family's hostility was that his parents had become Jehovah's Witnesses. However, neither applicant argued during the protection process that state protection in Georgia was unavailable to them because of that religious connection. Their questionnaires, interviews and appeal notices did not advance that case.
The Tribunal ultimately accepted that religion was one reason for the feared persecution but concluded that state protection was available and that the applicants had not shown serious grounds for treating Georgia, a designated safe country of origin, as unsafe in their individual circumstances.
In the High Court, the couple argued that the Tribunal should itself have obtained further country information about the treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses under its duty to cooperate with protection applicants.
Mr Justice Gillane rejected that argument. He held that applicants must at least identify a serious ground or counter-indication particular to their own circumstances before the shared duty of cooperation arises. A decision-maker cannot be expected to investigate and decide a case that was never actually made.
The judicial review applications were therefore refused. The judge proposed awarding costs to the respondents, but stayed that order for two weeks to allow the applicants to argue for a different costs outcome.