The High Court dismissed a judicial review challenge to a deportation order made against a father, finding that the applicants had not established grounds for quashing it. The court made no injunction: no application for one had been made.
The order was made by the Minister for Justice and Equality on 14 September 2018. The father, identified in the judgment as D.O.A. (Nigeria), sought certiorari. Leave to bring the proceedings was granted on 12 November 2018, and the statement of opposition was delivered on 12 March 2019. Mr Justice Richard Humphreys delivered judgment on 29 April 2019.
A central issue at the hearing was the applicants’ claim that the father and mother were married and could rely on marriage-related rights under Article 41 of the Constitution. The judge said the applicants had not provided details of the alleged marriage until the hearing, when their counsel explained that it was a traditional ceremony in Ireland in 2013 and accepted that it was not legally binding. The court concluded that Article 41 did not apply to the parents as spouses and criticised the failure to give a full account of their relationship.
The judgment records that the father had entered Ireland in 2006 using a cousin’s identity and had obtained work and social welfare on that basis. He was later convicted of theft and fraud offences arising from falsely claiming social welfare and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in December 2017. The younger child’s earlier Irish passport had, according to evidence cited in the judgment, been issued on false information about the father’s identity. The child was naturalised as an Irish citizen in May 2018.
The applicants argued that the Minister had failed to assess their constitutional and family rights, acted disproportionately, mishandled the EU law issue associated with Ruiz Zambrano, and failed to give adequate reasons. The judge rejected those grounds. He said the Minister had considered the substance of the rights at issue, that a parent of an Irish citizen child may in principle be deported, and that the Zambrano issue did not arise because it had not been suggested the children would move to Nigeria. He also found no requirement for a detailed proportionality analysis in the circumstances.
The court dismissed the proceedings. It did not decide an injunction application or grant other relief.