The High Court has dismissed a judicial review brought for two siblings challenging the Minister for Justice’s refusal to grant them Irish citizenship without the required qualifying residence. The court upheld the decisions made on 28 February 2023 and awarded costs to the Minister against their father, K.B.
The applicants, identified as M.AYA.K. and M.ARH.K., are Pakistani nationals born in Ireland. Their father brought the case on their behalf. They relied on their relationship with their Irish-citizen brother as an Irish association under section 16 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, which gives the Minister discretion to waive naturalisation conditions.
The Minister accepted that the siblings met the statutory test of having an Irish association through their brother. Officials nevertheless recommended refusing their applications, concluding that the circumstances were not exceptional and that the association did not justify waiving the residence requirements. The siblings had applied in 2019, when their brother was less than three months old. By the time of the reconsideration, the relationship had lasted about four years.
Justice Alexander Owens rejected the siblings’ arguments that the Minister’s policy unlawfully restricted discretion, that the reasons were inadequate, and that the decision-makers wrongly relied on other possible routes to citizenship. He said the Minister could require exceptional circumstances before waiving statutory conditions, and that the usual route was to meet the residence requirements. The applicants’ age and their Irish birth and education were relevant circumstances, but did not require preferential treatment.
The judgment noted that the family received permission to remain in Ireland for two years under the 2022 Regularisation of Long-Term Undocumented Migrants Scheme from 13 April 2023. The siblings could eventually apply through the ordinary residence route, or make a further case for waiver based on changed circumstances. The court said the decision-makers were entitled to assess the applications based on the circumstances in early 2023.
The judge also corrected an error in his earlier analysis: a provision introduced in 2023 had not been in force when the Minister made the decisions. He said the applicable law was the version of the Act then in force, and that the correction did not change his conclusion that the applicants had not established grounds to set aside the decisions. The judicial review applications were dismissed.