The High Court has dismissed an application by Diogo De Souza and Viktoriia Langovska for leave to appeal a judgment that rejected a challenge to a deportation order against De Souza.
In a judgment delivered on 15 July 2019, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said the proposed appeal questions did not establish a point of law of exceptional public importance or a reason to grant leave. The court’s order dismissed the application for leave to appeal. It did not decide a new challenge to the deportation order.
The first proposed question concerned whether the Minister for Justice and Equality had to process, or arrange for another section of the Department to process, an application under the European Union (Free Movement of Persons) Regulations 2015 before making a deportation order. The judge rejected the premise that De Souza had made such an application. He said De Souza had not asked to be treated as a permitted family member under the regulations before the deportation order was made. The issue, the judge said, was not a missing form or correspondence sent to the wrong Department section.
The second question concerned the applicants’ relationship, which their submissions said had lasted more than five years, and whether De Souza’s rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights had to be considered. The judge said those rights had been considered in the earlier judgment. He also said the proposed question was specific to the facts and that, without exceptional circumstances, deportation of a person who was not settled in the State did not breach Article 8.
The third question asked whether the Minister had to assess the effect of deportation on private and family life developed while De Souza’s presence in Ireland was tolerated for more than five years. The judge said the point about toleration had not been pleaded in the statement of grounds and could not support leave to appeal. He also referred to the earlier judgment’s conclusion that the delay between the deportation order and its enforcement did not amount to toleration.
The earlier challenge to the deportation order had been dismissed in June 2019. The current judgment concerned only the applicants’ request for leave to appeal that decision.