The High Court refused an application for a certificate allowing an appeal to the Supreme Court over the duration of deportation orders, despite finding that the legal question was of exceptional public importance.
Mr Justice Hogan delivered the judgment on 22 February 2011 in judicial review proceedings brought by six anonymised applicants, including minors represented by their father and next friend. The respondent was the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (No. 3).
The original challenge concerned a deportation order against the first applicant, requiring him to leave Ireland and remain outside the State. The applicants argued that the Minister had failed to use a discretion to set a shorter period for the ban. In an earlier judgment, the High Court rejected that argument, holding that section 3(1) of the Immigration Act 1999 meant a deportation order operated as a lifetime ban in principle. The judgment noted that section 3(11) allowed the Minister to revoke an order at any time.
The court had also subsequently ruled that it had no jurisdiction after judgment to permit an amendment of the pleadings to challenge the constitutionality of section 3(1). The application before Mr Justice Hogan concerned only whether to certify an appeal from the earlier decision under section 5(3)(a) of the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act 2000.
That provision required the applicants to show both that the decision involved a point of law of exceptional public importance and that an appeal would be desirable in the public interest. The judge found the first condition met: the interpretation of section 3(1), including whether its wording made deportation orders permanent subject to the Minister’s revocation power, could affect many orders and was of central importance to the immigration system.
But he found the public-interest condition was not met. In his view, the statutory wording was clear and the issue straightforward. He concluded it was not desirable for the Supreme Court to be required to decide that point. The High Court therefore refused the certificate. The judgment did not decide an appeal on the merits or alter the underlying deportation order.