Section 9 of the Refugee Act 1996 provided that a person seeking asylum is entitled to enter the State and remain here while the application for refugee status is processed. Section 9(4) also provided however, inter alia, that an applicant shall not seek or enter employment before final determination of his or her application for a declaration. Pending the determination of an application for refugee status, applicants are required to live in State provided accommodation known as Direct Provision, and provided in addition with an allowance of €19 per week. In this particular case the applicant was in the system for more than eight years, and during that time was prohibited from seeking employment.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the absolute prohibition on employment in section 9(4) of the Refugee Act 1996 is unconstitutional. O’Donnell J. noted that it was the absolute ban that was the problem, not a limited ban as such, and stated, "However, since this situation arises because of the intersection of a number of statutory provisions, and could arguably be met by alteration of some one or other of them, and since that is first and foremost a matter for executive and legislative judgement, I would adjourn consideration of the order the Court should make for a period of six months and invite the parties to make submissions on the form of the order in the light of circumstances then obtaining."

http://www.courts.ie/Judgments.nsf/09859e7a3f34669680256ef3004a27de/bba87f6e90ea3c5d80258130004199fe?OpenDocument

The Department of Justice and Equality issued a statement on the Supreme Court ruling on the right of asylum seekers to work, which included the following:

"The question of the right to work is closely intertwined with the processing times for first instance decisions. In many EU Member States, the right to work is not an unfettered right, often arising after a particular period of time – usually 9 months to a year – and in many instances limited to particular job categories, etc. For example in Sweden and Portugal the granting of a right to work coincides with the withdrawal of financial supports. One of the principle aims of the International Protection Act is to process cases as quickly as possible so that persons who are granted a permission to stay have an automatic right to work. Providing a legal or practical limitation on the time taken to process an application for asylum is one option mentioned in the Judgement that may be permissible. This will be a matter for further consideration."

More: http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/SP17000184