A reception centre for asylum-seekers in the affluent Dublin suburb of Ballsbridge has been closed after a Government climbdown in the face of legal action by residents.
The 50-bedroom former guest house on Pembroke Road was shut down in the past week following a High Court challenge by a residents' group.
It is also a blow to the Government's policy to accommodate asylum-seekers in working, middle and upper class areas of Dublin to ensure there is no discrimination.
The Department of Justice runs other reception centres at Parnell Square, Francis Street and Harcourt Street, in which asylum-seekers are housed prior to their dispersal throughout the State.
It is understood that under the settlement, the Pembroke Road Residents' Association dropped its High Court action and the State agreed to stop housing asylum-seekers in the premises that it had leased.
The association began its legal action last April, seeking to quash the Government's decision to house asylum-seekers in the reception centre on the grounds that there was no planning permission, and that An Bord Pleanala had already refused permission for its retention as a guesthouse. It challenged the Minister for Justice's decision to make an emergency order to convert the premises.
A Department spokesman said the reception centre closed last Friday following a court settlement between the State and the residents' association, the terms of which were confidential.
Mr Paul Walsh SC, the chairman of the residents' association, declined to comment on the settlement.
He had previously strongly rejected suggestions that his association was opposed to having asylum-seekers housed in its "backyard".
Mr Walsh had also distanced himself from a letter signed by another association member and circulated earlier this year which claimed the area was "becoming saturated with unwanted elements who are a threat to the settled community".
Meanwhile, residents in Rosslare, Co Wexford, opposed to the planned use of the Devereux Hotel as a reception centre for asylum-seekers, have said their legal team has been in contact with the Pembroke Road group.
"We have served notice that if Office of Public Works people go into the hotel to do work, we will apply for an injunction and fight them on the planning, but that hasn't happened," said a spokesman, Mr David Kinsella.