THE IRISH Refugee Council (IRC) has called for the resignation of the chairman of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, John Ryan, "in the light of new and damning revelations" published about the tribunal yesterday in The Irish Times.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael has said there can be no continuity between the Refugee Appeals Tribunal and any new refugee appeals body set up under the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill.
The Labour Party has called for Mr Ryan to answer questions raised about his chairmanship of the tribunal or, if he does not, for his removal from his position.
The party's spokesman on justice, Pat Rabbitte, said both Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan and Mr Ryan "have serious questions to answer following this morning's fresh revelations about the James Nicholson affair".
"This affair raises the most serious of questions, going to the heart of the issue of public confidence in the integrity of our system of administrative tribunals. It also unusually raises questions about the integrity of our public service when defending its record in the courts." He said if a similar track record was uncovered in relation to any other quasi-judicial tribunals, "heads would by now have rolled. The Minister can only be hoping that the public are willing to tolerate far lower standards, in terms of basic fairness and procedures, when it comes to dealing with non-nationals."
Mr Rabbitte said that when introducing the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill, the Minister "made no reference to Section 137 (5) under which John Ryan automatically becomes chairman of the Protection Review Tribunal when the current tribunal is wound up. This cannot be allowed to stand. John Ryan must come forward to answer the claims made against him."
Failing that, Mr Ryan should be removed, Mr Rabbitte said.
In a separate development yesterday, it emerged that Mr Nicholson had resigned from the tribunal.
Three asylum seekers had gone to court claiming they would not receive a fair hearing from him because his record showed bias, and after 18 months the Refugee Appeals Tribunal settled the case.
The chief executive of the IRC, Robin Hanan, said that the position of the chairman of the tribunal had become untenable.
"The IRC has for some time expressed concerns about the way in which decisions are made and the cloud of secrecy surrounding the whole process. The Refugee Appeals Tribunal is dealing with what could be life or death decisions for people coming to Ireland seeking protection from danger. These concerns have now been confirmed in a very disturbing and public way.
"I am horrified at the impact this has had on hundreds of asylum seekers' lives. They deserve to have their cases reviewed as a matter of urgency," he said.
Calling for new independent appeals systems for refugees and immigrants, Denis Naughten, the Fine Gael spokesman on immigration, said: "The need for action is even more pressing given further media reports that members of the tribunal had raised allegations that work was being allocated by the chairman on the basis of the record of individual members in rejecting appeals.
"If we have a system that even people within it think is not fair it is not good for the applicants and it is not good for the taxpayer."