The Government acted unlawfully in its treatment of Erin Britton, an American student who was told that her visa would not be renewed unless she withdrew her four-year-old son from a Galway national school, according to her solicitor.
Hilkka Becker, senior solicitor at the Immigrant Council of Ireland, said the Government had given Ms Britton no notice of its change in policy on student visa-holders and was given no opportunity to appeal the decision. She was commenting yesterday after her client was granted leave to apply for a judicial review of the Government's decision.
Ms Britton came to Ireland to study a two-year master's programme in medieval studies at NUI Galway in 2006 and was not told before she came here, or on her arrival, that a condition of her permission to stay was that her son must not attend a State school, Ms Becker said.
"The first time Ms Britton heard of this condition was when she tried to renew her permission to stay, at a point when her son was already attending primary school and when she is more than halfway through her master's programme.
"She has found the rules have changed without notice and that the Government is telling her that, in order to stay in Ireland to finish her course - which is costing her €12,000 a year in fees, plus loans to cover her living expenses - she must take her child out of the school where he is happily settled and enrol him in a private school.
"We believe Ms Britton has a right to expect her permission to stay in Ireland would be renewed on the same terms as it was initially granted in 2006 - with no conditions relating to her son's education."
Ms Becker claims the Government's decision breached the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and said it was ironic that she was seeking a judicial review the day before the UN's International Migrants Day.
"The immigrant council has consistently lobbied the Government to spell out in law what migrants' rights to family life are and this case demonstrates that need," she said.
"We would urge the Government to apply the same rules in Ireland as apply in the UK, where a child of an international student is permitted to receive a State education while a parent is studying there, provided the child leaves the country when the parent completes their studies."
