Refugee status determination in Ireland is, in our 30-year experience, rigorous and involves a detailed examination of a person’s application.
A refugee is a person who has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of one of five reasons (race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion).  If a person is not recognised as a refugee, their application will also be considered as to whether they should receive subsidiary protection.
To receive subsidiary protection substantial grounds have shown that the person is at risk of serious harm, such as the death penalty or execution, torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or serious and individual threat to a civilian’s life because of internal or international armed conflict.
The median processing time for all international protection cases (which includes decisions on permission to remain) processed to completion by the IPO in Quarter 4 of 2022 was 10 months. The median processing time for cases processed to completion for all of 2022 was 18 months.
If a person is refused refugee status they have one right of appeal to the International Protection Appeals Tribunal.