McDowell rules out emergency State-funded legal advice for 400 parents of Irish citizens facing deportation

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell yesterday ruled out providing emergency State-funded legal advice for the 400 parents of Irish citizens facing deportation.

The minister issued these deportation notices following a Supreme Court ruling that non-national parents of Irish-born children did not have an automatic right to remain here.

But Mr McDowell did not make any provision for legal aid to help them fight their appeals.

FLAC, the Free Legal Advice Centres, has called on the minister to provide this emergency funding because those concerned cannot afford to finance their appeals to stay here on humanitarian grounds.

“There is no dispute about the fact that an Irish citizen has the right to stay in the State but this is of little use to a six-month-old baby whose non-national parents do not have the right to remain,” FLAC spokeswoman Eleanor Redmond said. The Refugee Legal Service provides representation in asylum appeals and may deal with humanitarian leave to remain in the context of such cases.

But many of the families concerned have withdrawn their asylum applications in the correct belief up to January this year that they would be granted the right to remain based on their parentage of an Irish-born child, Ms Redmond said.

“Now it appears that such families will not be eligible for legal aid and have been given 15 days to present a detailed argument as to why they should be allowed to remain,” Ms Redmond said.

Most of the 400 people facing deportation cannot afford the pay a solicitor or barrister to help them appeal their cases, she said.

The minister for justice has the discretion to allow the family of an Irish-born child to remain in the State.

“But to ensure he has the full facts at his disposal we are calling on the minister to urgently review the situation to ensure that State-funded legal advice will be available on an emergency basis to such families,” Ms Redmond said.

However, the minister’s spokesman yesterday ruled out any State-funded legal advice being provided to the 400 people facing deportation.

“The money given to the Refugee Legal Service is most appropriately spent on helping asylum seekers make their applications and we cannot give more money for these emergency cases,” the minister’s spokesman said.

Not all the parents of non-nationals are asylum seekers - 2,000 of the 10,000 parents of non-nationals seeking leave to remain are illegal immigrants.

“There is nothing to stop those who originally sought asylum making a new application,” the minister’s spokesman said. The Irish Refugee Council (IRC) called on the minister again yesterday to reconsider his decision.

“It is very difficult for them to fight their cases without legal advice because the letters they received from the department were so vague that the non-nationals do not know how to argue their case,” IRC legal officer Cabrini Gibbons said.