Colin Smith SC

Equality

O’Meara v. Minister for Social Protection [2024] IESC 1: acted for a family in a challenge to the exclusion of unmarried parents from eligibility for the Widows’/Widowers’ Contributory Pension under the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005. The Supreme Court declared the relevant provision of the 2005 Act invalid.

Disability, mental health and capacity

RY and ZR v. Disability Appeals Officer [2024] IEHC 8: acted for a parent a statutory appeal concerning a failure by the HSE to specify dates for service provision for a disabled child.

AB v. HSE [2023] IECA 275: acted for a parent a consultative case stated from the Circuit Court involving a challenge to a practice of deferring diagnostic assessments for disabled children.

JN v. Harraghy [2023] IESC 9, [2022] IEHC 407: acted for a parent in a case concerning the scope of statutory appeals under the Disability Act 2005.

In re JJ [2022] 3 IR 1: acted for a parent in case about medical treatment of a catastrophically-injured child.

MC v. Clinical Director of the Central Mental Hospital [2020] IESC 28, [2021] 2 IR 166, [2019] IECA 4, [2016] IEHC 341: acted for a patient in a challenge to the refusal of the Clinical Director to make the arrangements necessary to comply with a discharge approved by the Mental Health (Criminal Law) Review Board under the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006.

AC v. Cork University Hospital [2020] 2 IR 38: acted for IHREC as amicus curiae in a case about the procedures by which a person may be received into wardship, and the circumstances in which they may be detained.

AB v. Clinical Director of St Loman’s Hospital [2018] 3 IR 710: acted for IHREC as amicus curiae in a case concerning reviews of renewal orders made under the Mental Health Act 2001 by mental health tribunals.

PL v. Clinical Director of St Patrick’s Hospital [2019] 2 IR 266: acted for IHREC as amicus curiae in a case about the definition of detention in the context of involuntary treatment under the Mental Health Act 2001.

HSE v. VF [2014] 3 IR 305: acted for a disabled person’s guardian in a case about the circumstances in which a person of unsound mind could be detained pursuant to the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court.

Education 

GF v. Minister for Education [2022] IEHC 379: acted for a parent in a challenge to the departmental decision not to open any new reading classes for dyslexic children.

EO and TO v. Minister for Education [2022] IEHC 561: acted for parents in a challenge to a decision of the Appeals Committee on an appeal against a refusal of enrollment under section 29 of the Education Act 1998.

O’N v. National Council for Special Education [2021] IEHC 246: acted for parents in a challenge to a decision of the School Transport Appeals Board.

Social welfare

Little v. Chief Appeals Officer [2023] IESC 25: acted for a social welfare recipient in a case concerning the scope of review applications under the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005.

Sobhy v. Chief Appeals Officer [2021] IESC 81, [2022] 1 IR 807, [2021] IEHC 93: acted for a worker in a case about eligibility for maternity benefit.

X and Others v. Ireland, App Nos 23851/20 and 24360/20, 22 June 2023: acted for a family in their complaints to the European Court of Human Rights about exclusion from child benefit.

Human trafficking and labour exploitation

International Transport Workers Federation v. Minister for Justice and Equality [2018] IEHC 695: acted for a union federation which impugned the State’s measures to prevent human trafficking and exploitation of migrant workers in the fishing fleet. The mediated settlement led to significant changes to the State’s immigration scheme for fishers and the regulatory framework for workers on fishing vessels.

P v. Chief Superintendent of the Garda Immigration Bureau [2015] 2 ILRM 1: acted for a victim in proceedings which established that the State had failed to transpose Article 11 of the Anti-Trafficking Directive, Directive 2011/36/EU. The victim was awarded €30,000 in Francovich damages.

Asylum and immigration

SY v. Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth [2023] IEHC 187 and IKA v. Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth [2023] IEHC 283: acted for homeless asylum seekers in test cases which established that the State was in breach of its obligations to homeless asylum seekers under the EC (Reception Conditions) Regulations 2018 for failure to ensure that their basic needs to shelter and food were met. The cases also led to the making of a declaration that the State had violated the applicants’ rights under Article 1 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, the first declaration of its kind.

X v. Minister for Justice and Equality and Others [2021] 1 ILRM 411: acted for UNHCR as amicus curiae in a case concerning the exclusion of adopted children from family reunification under the International Protection Act 2015.

MAM and HN v. Minister for Justice and Equality [2020] 3 IR 50: acted for IHREC as amicus curiae in a challenge to refusals of family reunification to naturalised refugees.

BD (Bhutan and Nepal) v. Minister for Justice and Equality [2018] IEHC 461: acted for UNHCR as amicus curiae in a case about the circumstances in which an arbitrary deprivation of nationality might be relevant to a determination of citizenship in the context of an application for international protection.

FF v. Minister for Justice and Equality [2017] IECA 273: acted for an applicant in a case about how an application for subsidiary protection for a person who has lived in more than one country should be determined.

Historic abuse

Harney v. Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Record No 2021/180 JR: acted for Mary Harney in her challenge with Philomena Lee to the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. The State conceded that the Commission had breached its statutory duty to furnish the applicants with a draft of the Report, in which they are identifiable, before publication and the Court made declarations to this effect. The cases were the first successful challenges to the final report of a Commission of Investigation.

KW v. Minister for Education, Record No 2023/1425 JR and PD v. Minister for Education, Record No 2020/4864 JR: appeared for IHREC as amicus curiae in challenges to refusals to make payments to victims of sexual abuse redress under the redress scheme established after the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in O’Keeffe v. Ireland. The proceedings were compromised to the satisfaction of the victims.

LF v. Ireland, App No 62007/17, [dec] 10 December 2020: acted for a victim of symphysiotomy in her complaint to the European Court of Human Rights.

MKL and DC v. Minister for Justice [2017] IEHC 389: acted for former residents of a Magdalene Laundry in a successful challenge to their exclusions from the State’s redress scheme.

Coppin v. Ireland, UN Doc CAT/C/73/D/879/2018: acted for a victim of abuse in a Magdalene Laundry in her complaint to the UN Committee against Torture.

Civil liberties

Tallon v. DPP [2023] IECA 125: appeared for IHREC as amicus curiae in the first consideration by the Superior Courts of the parameters within which civil orders to address anti-social behaviour can be made by the District Court under the Criminal Justice Act 2006.

International

Worked with the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, the Council of Europe’s Directorate General for Human Rights and Rule of Law, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the War Crimes Division of the Office of the Prosecutor at the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association and the Legal Division of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

‘Access to Justice for Victims of Historic Institutional Abuse’ (with April Duff BL) in Katherine O’Donnell et al (eds) Redress: Ireland’s Institutions and Transitional Justice (UCD Dublin 2022) 104

‘Cáin Adomnáin and the Laws of War’ (with James Gallen) (2014) 16(1) Journal of the History of International Law 63

‘Special Agreements to Apply the Geneva Conventions in Internal Armed Conflicts: The Lessons of Darfur’ in Jean Allain and Siobhán Mullally (eds) Irish Yearbook of International Law 2007 (Hart Oxford 2009) 91

‘Lessons on Admissibility from Irish ECHR Cases’, Bar Council CPD event, Dublin, 16 April 2024

‘Legal Update on Issues in Social Welfare Appeals’,
Community Law and Medication seminar on social welfare law, online, 24 November 2023

‘Practical application of the principle of non-punishment in Ireland’, Meeting of the Council of Europe network of specialised lawyers and NGOs providing legal assistance to victims of trafficking in human beings, Strasbourg, France, 26 October 2023

‘Commissions of Investigation in Ireland’, Transforming Justice Project Workshop on an All-Island Examination of Justice Responses to Historical Institutional Abuse, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, 4 September 2023

‘Lessons from O’Keeffe v. Ireland’ Conference on the Common Law in Europe, Cypriot Bar Association, Limassol, Cyprus, 16 June 2022

‘Advancing access to justice through education and awareness’ Chief Justice’s Conference on Access to Justice, online, 2 October 2021

Irish Refugee Council Independent Law Centre Advisory Council, 2024

Adjunct Assistant Professor, School of Law, Trinity College Dublin and joint coordinator of the Human Rights Clinic.

Appointed in April 2023 by the Northern Ireland Executive to the ten-member Truth Recovery Independent Panel investigating Mother and Baby Homes, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses in Northern Ireland.

Appointed to the Mental Health Tribunal by the Mental Health Commission in 2019 and re-appointed in 2023.