Right to housing

The widespread crisis of housing availability and affordability worsened with record numbers of homeless people. The Programme for Government, published in January, lacked any commitment to a constitutional referendum on the right to adequate housing, as recommended by the previous government’s Housing Commission.

Women’s and girls’ rights

In July, in its concluding observations on Ireland’s eighth periodic report, the CEDAW Committee called for the removal of outstanding arbitrary barriers to redress for survivors of abuse in “mother and baby homes”, Magdalene Laundries and other residential institutions for women and girls operating in the 20th century.

The committee observed that Roma and Traveller women and girls continued to face limited access to education, employment, health services and housing. It noted persistent over-representation of Traveller women in prisons.

The committee also expressed concern at the “failure to implement the recommendations of the 2023 independent review of the operation of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018, the lack of available abortion services, the absence of available data, and stigma and conscientious objection among medical personnel”.

Right to a healthy environment

In April, the government published its Climate Action Plan 2025. Civil society groups expressed concern that the plan lacked clear policies and clear obligations on state bodies to equitably phase out fossil fuels and associated infrastructure.

Ireland’s Climate and Environmental Finance Report, published in March, showed a one-third increase in climate finance spending in 2023, indicating that Ireland was on track to meet its commitment of EUR 225 million annually in 2025.

Corporate accountability

The Guardian newspaper uncovered evidence that Microsoft’s Ireland-based data centres had been used by the Israeli military for surveillance of, and planned air strikes on, Palestinians. In September 2025, following an investigation, Microsoft announced the termination of Israel’s Unit 8200’s access to certain Azure Cloud storage and AI services. However, at the end of the year it was unclear if Microsoft had investigated and terminated all contracts and products supplied to Israeli entities for involvement with potential violations against Palestinians.

The government failed to enact promised legislation banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Freedom of peaceful assembly

Police made unnecessary arrests and used unnecessary force at a Mothers Against Genocide protest in March. In October, police used excessive force against people protesting against Israel’s detention of Global Sumud Flotilla activists.

Freedom of expression and association

In October, the charities regulator established a statutory consultative panel to inform how the new charitable purpose of “advancement of human rights”, introduced in the Charities (Amendment) Act 2024, would be applied to decisions on allowing organizations to have charitable status. Concern remained at the ongoing negative impact of the Electoral Act on civil society organizations’ access to funding for campaigning purposes.

Refugees’ and migrants’ rights

A draft bill published in April proposed to overhaul the asylum system in line with the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum. However, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) expressed fears that the draft legislation risked introducing a system that failed to respect asylum seekers’ rights. Concerns related particularly to detention, access to legal representation and counselling, and the treatment of children and vulnerable people.

Workers’ rights

In March, the Department of Justice published its long-overdue review of section 7A of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, which criminalized the purchase of sex. The review recommended continuing the criminalization approach despite evidence that this exposed sex workers to a higher risk of violence and other abuse.

LGBTI people’s rights

The CEDAW Committee expressed concern at the lack of free, prior and informed consent for medical interventions on intersex children and called for a ban on conversion practices for LGBTI people.

Detainees’ rights

In July, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture published the report of its findings following a visit to Ireland in 2024. The report noted worsening prison conditions, particularly for men, with evidence of inadequate mental healthcare, inter-prisoner violence and preventable deaths in custody, as well as allegations of abuse by staff.

Rights of people with disabilities

In its first report as Ireland’s Independent Monitoring Mechanism under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the IHREC noted a “chronic lack of community-based supports, housing and services amounting to a de facto policy of institutionalization”. It also pinpointed “repeated state failure to protect disabled people” in institutional settings.

Violations of international humanitarian law

In July, civil society organization Uplift filed a legal action alleging government failure to investigate evidence that civilian aircraft repeatedly and illegally flew from the USA to Israel through Irish airspace while carrying military cargo.