Appeal by Nigerian, Czech couple concludes

The State has argued before the Supreme Court that any rights derived by the non-national parents of Irish-born children, by virtue of their children's Irish citizenship, cannot significantly curtail the State's entitlement to control immigration into this country.

The constitutional right to Irish citizenship of all persons born in Ireland, as set out in Article 2 of the Constitution, as amended following the 1998 referendum on the Belfast Agreement, cannot confer rights on the non-national parents of Irish-born children to such an extent as to dismantle the system for the control of immigration, Mr Paul Gallagher SC, for the State, told the court.

He was making submissions on the second day of an appeal by a Nigerian man and a Czech couple against a High Court decision last April rejecting their argument that, by virtue of having Irish-born children, they are entitled to remain here.

The seven-judge court reserved its decision.

The appellants are the Lobe couple from the Czech Republic, who have four children, one of whom was born in Ireland in October 2001, and Mr Andrew Osayande, from Nigeria, who has two children. His son was born here on November 2nd last year.

The principal issue in the appeal centres on the effect of a 1989 Supreme Court decision in the Fajajonu case. In that case, the court held that where non-nationals had lived here for an "appreciable time" with their Irish-born children, those children had a right to the society of their parents within a family unit, which right those children were entitled to exercise within the State. The court also held that that right may be contravened only for grave and substantial reasons associated with the common good.