The High Court has today rejected challenges to deportation made by two families with Irish-born children.
The two cases concern Czech and Nigerian nationals who have children born in the State.
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Making his ruling today Mr Justice Thomas Smyth granted the families leave to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
But he said: "This case not only turns on the rights of the child but also on the powers of the Oireachtas to control the passage of aliens into the country."
The court heard that Czech national Mr David Lobet applied for asylum with his pregnant wife and three young children in March 1999. On November 2nd 2001, his son Kevin was born in Galway University Hospital. The family is now settled in Clifden.
Mr Lobet’s parents, one brother and one sister are also living in the State. He has one brother living in the Czech Republic.
The court heard that Mrs Lobet had testified that the family had applied in vain for asylum in the UK before travelling to Ireland.
The other deportation order being challenged in the High Court today was against Nigerian national Mr Osyami. He arrived in the State with his pregnant wife Nora and daughter Emmanuelle on May 6th 2001. Their son was born in Ireland on October 4th 2001.
The court heard that Mr Osyami claimed he had never applied for asylum in any other EU state before. But fingerprint evidence later proved he had previously applied for asylum in the UK. Mr Osyami then testified that he had entered the UK on September 15th 1999 under a false passport.
Both applications were transferred to the UK - the first EU member state in which asylum procedures were initiated - under the Dublin Convention. The Minister for Justice then issued deportation orders under the 1999 Immigration Act, the court was told.
Today Mr Justice Smyth said the court understood that an Irish-born child did have the right "to live, be reared and educated in Ireland" under the constitution, and agreed that it had the right to the company of its parents.
But, he said, "it does not follow from this that the child has the right to the society of its family in Ireland".
Justice Smyth said he agreed with the State’s view that when non-national parents of Irish-born children are being deported, the constitutional rights of their children are best met through the children leaving with their families.
When those children are capable of independent living, he said, they could live in Ireland if they chose.