The High Court has ruled that a father and his infant son will not have to pay the State’s legal costs after their unsuccessful constitutional challenge concerning the child’s nationality and passport applications.
Mr Justice Barry O’Donnell made no order as to costs following his earlier May 22 judgment dismissing the substantive case. The applicants, identified as S.N. and his father R.N., had challenged decisions by the Minister for Foreign Affairs concerning applications for a certificate of nationality and a passport for the child.
The proceedings focused principally on section 7(3) of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956. The applicants argued that the provision was unconstitutional because it breached the equality guarantee in Article 40.1 of the Constitution. That challenge failed.
The remaining issue was who should pay the legal costs. Ordinarily, a party that loses litigation may be required to pay the successful side’s costs. The State argued that this normal rule should apply.
The court instead applied Supreme Court guidance on public interest litigation. Mr Justice O’Donnell found that the case had several public-law features. It challenged legislation, concerned the constitutional basis on which citizenship may be acquired and could affect naturalised Irish citizens whose children are born abroad.
The judge also noted limits to the public-interest character of the proceedings. They were brought primarily to secure a personal outcome for the applicants, were not formally treated as a test case and depended on established equality-law principles rather than unclear legislation.
Even so, the court found that the wider implications were sufficient to justify departing from the usual costs rule. It also considered that an adverse costs order could deter others, including people with fewer financial resources, from bringing potentially stronger challenges involving the same legislation.
The result is that each side must bear its own costs, both for the substantive proceedings and for the later costs application.