The Chinese mother of a girl born in Belfast has the right to reside in the UK, the European Court of Justice has ruled.
The judgment was widely expected, following a preliminary ruling from the court's Advocate General last May. He said that Mrs Lavette Chen, as the mother of Catherine Chen, was entitled to live in another EU state as the parent of an Irish citizen child. Catherine obtained an Irish passport under the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement, guaranteeing in the Constitution the right to Irish citizenship of every person born on the island of Ireland.
The case became a central plank of the Government's campaign in favour of the citizenship referendum. It argued that the existing constitutional provision gave an open door into the EU to people not otherwise entitled to live there. The referendum was passed overwhelmingly. Under legislation now before the Dáil, only children who have at least one parent who has resided in Ireland for a minimum of three years can be a citizen.
In a statement yesterday the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said: "Today's decision by the European Court of Justice puts beyond doubt the fact that there is significant advantage to be gained by organising the birth of a child on the island of Ireland, since Irish citizenship can be used to circumvent the immigration controls of the UK, or any other EU member-state, through the exercise of EU free movement rights." He said he and the Attorney General were considering the full implications of the judgment.
The court said yesterday that Catherine Chen, as an Irish citizen, had the right to free movement within the EU, provided she had enough resources not to become a burden on the state, and adequate health insurance. It found she did have these resources through her mother, who worked for her husband's exporting business.
Mrs Chen does not have the right to live in Ireland because the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the parents of Irish-born children did not have such an automatic right. The EU ruling applies to other countries in the community, while Irish citizenship law is governed by the Constitution and legislation.
However, the ruling prompted Opposition parties to appeal to the Government to regularise the situation of the estimated 11,000 families of Irish citizen children born before the Supreme Court ruling, who are facing deportation. Their legal position is that, provided they have the resources, they can live in any EU state except Ireland.
The Labour Party's spokesman on justice, Mr Joe Costello, said the Supreme Court ruling did not give blanket permission for deportation; that "substantial reasons associated with the common good", were required. The Green Party spokesman, Mr Ciarán Cuffe, called for such families to be allowed to stay. Fine Gael's Mr Jim O'Keeffe asked that the Minister clarify the number of people affected.