Family may be split up if deported

AN Eastern European couple are fearful that they will not be able to bring up their Irish-born daughter together if they are deported.

Timea Ghergut, whose native country Hungary joins the EU next May, and her Romanian husband Iosif have lived here since August 2001. Sabina was born three months later.

Now living in Galway, they have described their situation as intolerable, waiting since October 2001 to hear about their application for residency. They had expected to be allowed stay until the Supreme Court ruled last January that non-national parents of Irish-born children do not have an automatic right to residency.