MINISTER FOR Justice Brian Lenihan has welcomed a Supreme Court judgment which rejected his attempt to uphold deportation orders against the Nigerian parents of two Irish-born children.
He said the judgment clarified the criteria which must be taken into account when deciding whether to deport the foreign national parents of children born here before January 1st, 2005.
"I welcome this because it clarifies the requirements when assessing such particular cases," Mr Lenihan told The Irish Times.
The five-judge court ruled last week that the Minister had failed to give "substantial" reasons for the decision to deport the parents of George Dimbo (11) and Chuka Paul Oguekwe (4), who were born here before January 1st, 2005, after which new laws on citizenship were enacted.
They said he also failed to consider the children's rights under the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, including their right to family life.
However, Ms Justice Susan Denham stressed neither Constitution nor convention rights were "absolute", and the State also has the right to control the entry, presence and exit of foreign nationals, subject to the Constitution and international agreements. The State may consider issues of national security and public policy, and the Minister should consider the common good.
The judge specified that the length of time a citizen child has been here, their schooling and their participation in the community were very likely to be pertinent factors when deciding on their parents' possible deportation.
However, each case must be decided on its own facts, and the Minister was not required to "microspecify" matters in his decision.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said its procedures for considering these cases had already changed, and the criteria stipulated by the Supreme Court had been applied for some time.
The proceedings arose from the introduction of the Irish-born Child Scheme, which invited applications by foreign parents who had a child born in the State before 2005.
The scheme, which processed 16,000 successful claims, followed the introduction of laws on citizenship after the Supreme Court ruled a foreign parent of an Irish-born child has no automatic entitlement to remain.
