On the 11th of June the High Court granted permission to two clients of the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) to apply for Judicial Review of the Minister for Justice’s failure to decide on their applications within a reasonable timeframe.
The ICI reported (here) that, “In one of the cases, the Minister for Justice and Equality has delayed for more than four years deciding on an application for citizenship by an Iraqi refugee.
In the other, the Minister has failed to decide within the six months stipulated under EU law whether to grant a residence permit to a Pakistani woman who fled from her EU national husband in Ireland due to domestic violence and is now seeking to remain here on an independent basis.”
The second case is surprising because the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) is required to make decisions in respect of people’s freedom of movement under the EU Treaty within six months.
The rules surrounding how the state handles citizenship applications are much more vague. Under the section 15 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act of 1956 (as amended), the Minister has “absolute discretion” to decide whether an applicant who is eligible should be allowed to become a citizen. For years, the courts were very deferential to the Minister’s discretion, even where it appeared to have been exercised very unreasonably.
However, in December 2011, the High Court put some limits on the extent of the Minister’s discretion. Dana Salman v Minister for Justice ([2011] IEHC 481) concerned a an applicant who had been waiting nearly four years to find out whether he would be allowed to become a citizen of Ireland. A decision about his naturalisation had finally been made on the eve of the hearing, but that wasn’t enough to get the Department off the hook in terms of costs. Because the Department of Justice couldn’t offer any explanation for the delay, the High Court on that occasion ordered them to pay the applicant’s costs. That case confirmed that, even though the Minister has “absolute” discretion in respect of applications for naturalisation, that discretion does not extend to making people wait indefinitely, and without explanation, for a decision in their case.
It is, therefore, quite astonishing that these delays continue to happen. The ICI’s client is not alone, as any immigration solicitor or NGO working in the area will testify. His experience flies in the face of the Minister for Justice’s June 2011 announcement (here) that reforms of the Citizenship section of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service would include a “6 month turnaround on naturalisation applications”.
Principal, Claire McCarthy Solicitor
