Following the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Fajujonu v. Minister for Justice [1990] 2 IR 151, and in view of the state of the law as expressed in that judgment, previous Ministers adopted a policy of generally granting permission to remain in the State to non- national parents of Irish citizen children. Applications were refused in cases where Ministers deemed that the requirements of the common good necessitated a refusal. Approximately 10,500 non- EEA nationals were granted permission to remain on the basis of parentage of an Irish citizen child between 1996 and February 2003. Following the case of L and O v. Minister for Justice [2003] 1 IR 1, judgment in which was delivered by the Supreme Court on 23 January, 2003, the policy referred to was reviewed. It was decided that the separate procedures for the consideration of residency applications based solely on parentage of an Irish citizen child should cease with effect from 19 February, 2003.
Persons whose applications were processed under the pre-2003 arrangements were generally granted permission to remain in the State for an initial period of twelve months. Any subsequent renewals of this permission are dealt with by the Garda National Immigration Bureau without the necessity of recourse to my Department.
The dependent children of such applicants are automatically granted permission to remain in the State in line with that granted to their parent(s). Upon reaching the age of sixteen such children are required to write to my Department in order that they may obtain permission to remain in the State in their own right. Such applications are dealt with immediately on receipt by officials within my Department.
