The Minister for Justice has unlawfully breached the rights of several Irish-born children in the way he refused their non-national parents leave to remain in the State, the High Court has found.
Judgments in eight separate test cases today are expected to lead to hundreds of such cases being reconsidered by the State.
Minister was bound to defend rights of citizen child, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan found
Having found that the Minister had breached the rights of several Irish-born children under both the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights Act in how he considered their applications for leave to remain here, the judge quashed the Minister's refusals in all but one case.
That case involved an application from a Nigerian woman who was outside the State at the time of making her application and in relation to whom a deportation order had already been made.
The decision relates only to non-national parents of children born before January 1st, 2005.
In separate judgments, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan noted that, when determining the applications by the parents of the children in question, no consideration was given to the position or rights of the Irish-born child.
The refusal of the parents' applications to remain without any consideration of the rights, including welfare, of the Irish citizen children was unlawful as it breached the rights of their Irish citizen children guaranteed under the Constitution, she ruled.
She also found that the taking of the same decisions without considering the private rights of the Irish citizen children - in the sense of personal and social relationships which result from living here - was also unlawful as it was inconsistent with the State's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and breached those obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003.
The private lives of those citizen children demanded respect from the Minister, she held.
An estimated 1,120 people have had applications refused under the Irish-born child 2005 (IBC05) scheme, a revised arrangement for processing claims to remain here on the basis of having a child born here before January 1st, 2005, when citizenship arrangements were altered.
The scheme was introduced by the Minister in early 2005 and, up to January last, some 16,693 people have been permitted leave to remain under it.
Of those refused, most were refused on grounds that continuous residency here since the birth of the applicant's Irish-born child was not proven.
In her judgments today, Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan said when the Minister established the IBC05 scheme and when he received applications under it, he was bound to consider and decide those applications in a manner consistent with the State guarantee to defend and vindicate the personal rights of the citizen child, including the right to live in the State and to be reared and educated with due regard to their welfare.
The cases, to which the Human Rights Commission and the Attorney General were notice parties, arose from the introduction of the Irish-born child scheme in early 2005.