The Minister for Justice has ordered an inquiry into the case of a Romanian family which were due to be deported tomorrow after five years in Ireland.
Mr O'Donoghue said yesterday that a senior Department official would investigate the case and report back to him.
The enforcement of the deportation order against the Costina family of Clonsilla, Dublin, has been "deferred".
The Minister based his decision on "certain other facts" which he felt merited further examination. However, he insisted there was nothing to distinguish the humanitarian aspects of the case from a number of others.
Mr O'Donoghue said the Costinas' application for asylum was first rejected in 1995, when Labour's Ms Joan Burton was the Minister of State in the Department.
The case is to be raised in the Dail today, when Fine Gael will call for an "amnesty" for the family. Labour and Fine Gael are also calling on the Minister to explain the circumstances of their arrest, which the Department has blamed on a "breakdown of communications" between the Department, the family's solicitor and the family.
Aurel and Sylvia Costina and their 12-year-old son, Ionus, were arrested early on Thursday morning and told they would be deported that afternoon. Their other son, Marius (17), who was staying with relatives, would also be deported, they were told. The family received no notice of the deportation order.
The Democratic Left spokeswoman on justice, Ms Liz McManus, urged the Minister to suspend all deportation orders.
Up to the middle of last month, 51 people had been forcibly deported this year, she said. Another 36 left the State voluntarily, after being ordered out by the Department.
Both children attend local schools in west Dublin. Marius is due to sit his Leaving Certificate next year.
