Ireland is a State party to the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol (acceded to on 29th November 1956 and 6th November 1968 respectively).

Ireland is also a signatory to the Dublin Convention, under which the state responsible for examining applications for asylum lodged in one of the Member States of the European Communities is determined, and is subject to the Dublin Regulation (EC 343/2003) which succeeded that Convention.

The principal piece of domestic legislation dealing with refugees and asylum seekers is the 1996 Refugee Act, which entered into force in 2000. The Act incorporates the 1951 Geneva Convention into domestic law. It provides for the establishment of ORAC as well as the Refugee Appeals Tribunal and sets out a framework for the determination of asylum applications. (The 1996 Act has been amended by the Immigration Act 1999, the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act 2000 and the Immigration Act 2003)

Prior to the commencement in full of the Refugee Act, Ireland examined applications for asylum in accordance with administrative procedures. These were first formalised in 1995 in a set of procedures known as the Van Arnim procedures. Following a significant increase in number of people applying for asylum in Ireland, these procedures were replaced in 1997 with new arrangements known as the Hope Hanlan procedures (in both cases the procedures were set out in a letter to the UNHCR representative with responsibility for Ireland at the time and named after that official). These administrative procedures have been entirely replaced by the provisions of the Refugee Act.