Govt examining NI ruling on Rwanda flights

The Taoiseach has said yesterday's High Court judgment in Belfast relating to Rwanda flights is being studied carefully by the Government.

A judge ruled that provisions of the UK's Illegal Migration Act should be disapplied in Northern Ireland, as they undermine human rights protections guaranteed there under post-Brexit arrangements.

Mr Justice Humphreys also said aspects of the act were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The post-Brexit Windsor Framework jointly agreed by the UK and EU includes a stipulation that there can be no diminution of the rights provisions contained within the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

The illegal migration act provides new powers for the British government to detain and remove asylum seekers it deems to have arrived illegally in the UK. Central to the new laws is the scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

In the Dáil today, Simon Harris noted the judgment and said the Attorney General was studying it.

"We are studying this judgement carefully," he told the Dáil, but he said he understands "the UK government are likely to appeal" the decision. The Taoiseach would not comment on it further.

Earlier, the Minister for Finance said Ireland will address its concerns at political and diplomatic level with the British government following the judgment.

Speaking in Brussels, Minister MIchael McGrath said the judgment would affect an already "very difficult and a very challenging situation," and that the Irish Government had no control over the judgment.

He said: "This is a very new judgment and it's one that will be carefully considered by the Irish Government. I anticipate there will be contact very shortly at a political and diplomatic level in relation to it.

"It is, of course, subject to an appeal, so the judicial process has not concluded and there may well be further steps in the process yet."

He added: "Anything that results in Northern Ireland, as part of the overall island of Ireland, becoming more attractive than Great Britain when it comes to asylum seekers seeking somewhere to make their claim, does raise concerns, because if an increased number comes to Northern Ireland, that makes it more likely that there will be an increase in the flow of asylum seekers on the island, from Northern Ireland, to the Republic."