Reaction:Foreign-born parents of Irish citizen children expressed fear that hundreds of families could be split up or deported after yesterday's Supreme Court ruling.
One of the families at the centre of the case - Ifendima and Ethelbert Dimbo of Nigeria and their 11-year-old son George - said they were deeply concerned.
"We still feel very much in limbo," Ms Dimbo told The Irish Times. "We are facing another Christmas here in the asylum centre. We are trying to remain hopeful for the future. All the time our attitude has been that tomorrow will be better than yesterday. That is still our hope."
The Residents Against Racism group, which held a protest in Dublin city centre last night, said the ruling went against the constitutional principle of protecting the family.
"Every Irish citizen child should have the right to live with their parents. It's unconscionable that families who have been happily living together could now be separated," said the group's spokeswoman, Rosanna Davidson.
The Immigrant Council of Ireland said it was disappointed by the ruling which, it said, meant that an Irish child's rights would now not need to be considered until their parents were threatened with deportation.
The council's senior solicitor Hilkka Becker said it was important that the Government set out clearly in law migrants' rights to family life within the State.
"We have been lobbying for the Government to establish an independent appeals mechanism for immigration decisions and we hope it will do so in the forthcoming Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill," she said.
