The High Court has refused an Algerian man’s application for judicial review of the Minister for Justice and Equality’s decision to refuse his third application for an Irish naturalisation certificate.
In a judgment delivered on 21 July 2016, Ms Justice Stewart refused all reliefs sought. The applicant had asked the court to quash the refusal, declare it unlawful and direct the Minister to review the application or provide guidance on future applications. The court did not order a review or give that guidance.
The applicant arrived in Ireland in July 2000 and was granted refugee status in October 2002. He is married and has two Irish citizen children. His first naturalisation application, made in 2005, was refused in 2008 on good character grounds. A second application was refused in 2013. The third was refused on 24 June 2014, with the Minister’s submission stating that, “Given the nature of the offences”, the applicant was not considered to be of good character.
The record included 2003 charges arising from an incident in Macroom. The judgment says those charges were dealt with under the Probation of Offenders Act 1907, with the District Court applying the Act to the charges. The applicant was convicted of driving without insurance in 2004 and fined €300, with a three-year licence endorsement. In 2009, he was fined €400 after appearing on a charge of driving without insurance; he produced an insurance certificate at court. The fines were paid.
The applicant argued that the Minister had not properly weighed the age and seriousness of the offences, the penalties, his later conduct, and his family’s circumstances. He also alleged breaches of fair procedures and EU law, and argued that the Minister had applied a fixed policy. The Minister disputed those claims, arguing in part that the proceedings had been brought outside the three-month time limit and that the decision fell within her broad statutory discretion.
The judge said the offences could reasonably be viewed as being at the lower end of the gravity scale, but the evidence was insufficient to show that the Minister’s assessment was unreasonable. She found the applicant had been told that the offences were the reason for refusal and that there was no breach of fair procedures. The court also rejected the EU law arguments and found insufficient evidence that the Minister had acted arbitrarily, capriciously or autocratically.
The judgment noted that the Criminal Justice (Spent Convictions and Certain Disclosures) Act 2016 might assist the applicant after the relevant period had elapsed, and said the Minister might consider the Act’s principles in future cases. This observation was not an order granting naturalisation or changing the refusal.