The High Court has refused an application for leave to appeal over whether a deportation order is valid if it does not state on its face the date by which its subject must leave Ireland and remain outside the State.
In a judgment delivered on 8 May 2017, Ms Justice O’Regan said the applicants had not met the requirements for a certificate under section 5(3)(a) of the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act 2000. That provision allows the High Court to certify an appeal where its decision involves a point of law of exceptional public importance and an appeal is desirable in the public interest.
The application followed an earlier judgment of 30 March 2017 concerning deportation orders against the applicants. The stated departure dates appeared in accompanying notices rather than on the face of the orders. The present application asked the court to certify the question of whether that made the orders invalid. The court was considering leave to appeal, not deciding that validity question anew.
The applicant argued that judgments in Parvaiz v An Garda Commissioner and Lin Qing v Governor of Cloverhill Prison supported the position that the departure date had to appear in the order itself. The applicant also submitted that the Supreme Court’s earlier decision in P L and B v Minister for Justice had dealt with the issue summarily and did not show that the point had been fully argued.
The Minister opposed the application, arguing that there was no conflict in the authorities and no genuine uncertainty in the law. The Minister relied on other High Court decisions concerning departure dates in deportation orders, and argued that the authorities cited by the applicant did not establish the claimed conflict.
Justice O’Regan reviewed the principles governing appeal certificates, including that the legal uncertainty must be genuine, the point must arise from the court’s decision, and exceptional public importance and desirability in the public interest are separate requirements. She concluded that no uncertainty had been identified and no argument had been advanced to show that an appeal was desirable in the public interest.
The court therefore refused leave to appeal. It did not grant a certificate, and this judgment did not decide the underlying question about where a departure date must appear in a deportation order.