The Refugee Legal Service has resumed State-funded services to asylum-seekers which had been curtailed in recent weeks due to staff shortages.
The service is again providing advice and representation to asylum-seekers whose appeals against deportation have failed and who want to take a judicial review challenge in the High Court.
This service had been suspended for about six weeks because of staffing problems at the Refugee Legal Service, a specialist branch of the Legal Aid Board.
The board is the State body which provides legal aid and advice to people on low incomes.
Refugee and human rights groups had last week expressed concern about the suspension, which they claimed amounted to a denial of justice for asylum-seekers.
Suspension of the service meant that asylum-seekers would have had to hire private practitioners for High Court actions, which can cost thousands of pounds.
Since last year asylum-seekers have 14 days in which to seek leave for judicial review, compared with up to six months for others.
In the year to the end of last February, the service had provided assistance for about 90 judicial reviews.
The chief executive of the Legal Aid Board, Mr Frank Goodman, said yesterday he was pleased to announce the resumption of the service.
He would write to NGOs and asylum-seeker support organisations informing them.
He said the board had had "resources difficulties" which were now resolved.
It has a new agreement which will allow barristers to handle asylum appeals, and this would free up resources at the Refugee Legal Service.
The board has also concluded a recruitment programme for solicitors and expects to fill most of the vacancies in the Refugee Legal Service from this.
The Refugee Legal Service has provided services for up to 6,000 people since it started operations in February 1999.
Its services, at a nominal cost, are available at all stages of the asylum application process.
Mr Goodman said the board intended to increase staffing levels from 56 to 140 by June.
The service's budget for the current year is £7.9 million.
Ms Siobhan Phelan, of the Free Legal Advice Centres group, which monitors the provision of legal aid services, welcomed the move.
"Access to the courts is a fundamental right," she said. "It is, however, most regrettable that the statutory body charged with the delivery of legal aid services within the State should have adopted or pursued a policy of refusing legal aid to some of the most vulnerable members of Irish society."
Ms Phelan said FLAC hoped those affected by the suspension of services would now have their cases dealt with promptly and she called on the Legal Aid Board to secure the necessary resources to ensure it fulfilled its statutory duties at all levels and to safeguard against any suspension of services in the future.
The Irish Refugee Council also welcomed the resumption. Its legal officer, Mr Dug Cubie, urged that all asylum-seekers be offered full legal representation from the moment they made their applications for refugee status.
An agreement to facilitate the deportation of illegal Nigerian immigrants will be signed in the near future, the Government has announced.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said the re-admission accord would provide a "structured repatriation procedure" for the return of Nigerians, who are the largest group of asylum-seekers entering the State. Of almost 11,000 asylum applications last year, over 3,400 were from Nigeria.