The High Court has refused an Iraqi applicant leave to seek judicial review of the Minister for Justice’s decision to refuse his third application for an Irish naturalisation certificate, finding that he had not shown an arguable case that the refusal was unlawful.
Mr Justice Cooke delivered the judgment on 19 May 2010. The applicant had sought leave to challenge the Minister’s decision of 23 November 2009 and to compel reconsideration. The application was made ex parte, and the court’s decision concerned whether leave should be granted; it did not determine a substantive judicial review challenge.
The applicant came to Ireland as an asylum seeker in 1996. His asylum application was unsuccessful, but he received temporary leave to remain from May 1997, later renewed until May 2011. He said he had settled in Ennis, Co Clare, and had operated a small business since 2003, employing five people.
His first naturalisation application, made in 1999, was refused in 2003, and a second, made in 2004, was refused in 2006. The application at issue was made in September 2006. In the refusal letter, the Minister said he had exercised the “absolute discretion” provided under the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Acts and noted there was no appeal process, though the applicant could apply again.
The applicant’s proposed grounds included that repeated refusals without reasons made reapplying pointless, that the decision appeared irrational given his years in Ireland, and that he had not been told of any concerns so he could respond. He also argued that the absence of reasons prevented scrutiny under constitutional and European Convention rights.
The court said the applicable test for leave was whether an arguable case had been demonstrated. It held that the Minister’s discretion under section 15 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 allowed a naturalisation certificate to be refused even where statutory conditions were met, and that no general obligation to give reasons arose where that discretion was genuinely exercised.
The judge distinguished earlier cases relied on by the applicant, saying they involved indications that a refusal had turned on whether a statutory condition, such as good character, was met. The applicant had obtained the departmental file through a separate statutory process and said it contained no reason for refusal and included a “clean” Garda report. The court concluded this did not establish that the Minister had found a statutory condition unmet.
The court refused leave, holding that repeated unexplained refusals alone did not make out an arguable case of illegality. No order quashing the refusal or requiring reconsideration was made.