The High Court refused an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court over a deportation decision involving a non-national parent and Irish citizen children. The court said the proposed appeal raised no point of law of exceptional public importance and that an appeal was not desirable in the public interest.
The application followed an earlier High Court judgment on 25 June 2010 refusing the applicants leave to seek judicial review of a deportation order made on 19 January 2010 in respect of the second named applicant. The current judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Cooke on 14 July 2010, concerned only the application for a certificate to appeal that decision.
The applicants argued that the Minister had not adequately considered the possible effect on the children if the family returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo. They challenged the assessment in the Minister’s file note that the children, then six, were of an adaptable age and could be expected to adapt to life there. Their proposed appeal questions referred to reported conditions including conflict, human rights abuses and limited healthcare and education.
The court found that the proposed questions were framed around the particular facts and the Minister’s assessment in this case. They did not raise an uncertain legal issue of exceptional public importance. It said the governing approach under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights was sufficiently clear, including the requirement to consider the children’s circumstances and rights. The Minister was not generally required to conduct a detailed inquiry into education, health or other conditions in a country of return; the assessment was to reflect the circumstances known or made known when the deportation order was made. The judgment noted that a more detailed analysis could be needed in an exceptional case.
The court also relied on the first named applicant’s stated intention not to take the children to the DRC. It said that even if an appeal resulted in the Minister’s decision being quashed, any reconsideration would proceed on the basis that the mother and children intended to remain in Ireland, making conditions in the DRC irrelevant.
The court refused the application for leave to appeal. It did not revisit the earlier refusal of leave to seek judicial review or determine a new challenge to the deportation order.