The High Court granted a time-limited injunction against deporting a man while he had an opportunity to establish through DNA testing whether he was the father of a child. The order was made on 30 July 2020 in the remaining part of a judicial review case; most of the proceedings were dismissed.
The Minister for Justice disputed the man’s paternity. The court said it could not determine that question on the evidence before it. It found that a reasonable opportunity to test the alleged relationship was justified because a positive result could significantly affect the Minister’s assessment of the family’s circumstances. The injunction was limited to that purpose.
The order initially ran until 5 October 2020, unless a negative DNA result arrived earlier. If testing was completed and submitted for analysis by that date, the restraint would continue until a negative result or, following a positive result identifying the man as the father, for 28 days. If he applied for permission to remain within that period, the injunction would continue until 28 days after the Minister determined the application. The man had to continue presenting as required, provide information about testing progress and consent to the results being sent to the State at the same time as to the applicants. His bail was continued for the injunction’s duration.
The judgment recounts that the man was born in India and had been subject to a deportation order made in 2016. The second applicant, born in Romania, said she arrived in Ireland in 2015. The applicants said they met in 2017 and had a child in January 2019; the first applicant was named as the father on the birth certificate. The Minister later questioned paternity, citing gaps in evidence about the mother’s presence in Ireland and the lack of DNA evidence. The child’s passport became available in June 2020, which the judgment said made the required testing procedure feasible.
The court rejected the challenge to the 2019 refusal to revoke the deportation order, finding that the applicants had not shown it was unlawful on the information then before the Minister. It also refused their request to refer a question to the Court of Justice of the European Union, saying the case did not turn on a necessary question of EU law. The court dismissed the proceedings except for the DNA-related part of the amended claim, extended time for that part where necessary and refused the State’s request to set aside the amendments.
The judgment said the injunction was a collateral challenge to the deportation order, but the relevant grounds arose later, when the applicants became able to pursue the DNA test. It did not decide whether the man was the child’s father or grant an open-ended right to remain. The matter was adjourned to 17 August 2020 for possible submissions on leave to appeal.