The State will be unable to deport non-nationals until July at the earliest following a Supreme Court decision that part of the Aliens Act is unconstitutional.
It is estimated that up to 100 people who would otherwise have been deported since January may now remain in Ireland pending a change in the law. The Government hopes to have its new Immigration Bill passed into law before the Dail recess in July in order to allow deportations to resume.
The High Court made a decision last January which suspended all pending deportation orders. The Supreme Court yesterday upheld that decision, meaning that there remains no legal basis for carrying out deportations.
The new Immigration Bill was introduced by the Minister for Justice in the wake of last January's High Court ruling. The upholding of the High Court decision in the Supreme Court has added to the urgency in the Government that the Bill should be enacted before the summer recess.
More than 60 people were deported from the State in 1998. This number would probably have risen to some hundreds by the end of this year, because of the increased rate of processing applications for asylum, if the relevant section of the Aliens Act had not been found unconstitutional.
By a majority of three to two the Supreme Court yesterday upheld the earlier judgment of the High Court that Section five (1) (e) of the 1935 Aliens Act, under which people are deported, was unconstitutional, on the basis that it gave powers to the Minister for Justice which ought to belong solely to the Oireachtas.
The Supreme Court also declared that a deportation order made against a Romanian asylum-seeker, Mr Sorin Laurentiu, and the article of the 1946 Aliens Order under which it was made, were invalid. Mr Justice Keane and Ms Justice Denham ruled against the appeal, and the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Hamilton, agreed with them. Mr Justice Barrington and Mr Justice Lynch upheld the appeal.
Mr Justice Keane said that the power which the 1935 Act gave to the Minister was "inconsistent with the exclusive role in legislation conferred on the Oireachtas by Article 15.2.1 [of the Constitution]."
Ms Justice Denham said: "One searches in vain to find principles and policies regarding deportation in the Act. The legislature grasped the power over aliens from the executive and then delegated it inadequately to the Minister. It abdicated its power."
Mr Laurentiu, a former professional footballer, who was in court yesterday with his fiancee, Ms Michelle O'Rourke, said he was delighted with the decision. "It means we can go on holiday now", said Ms O'Rourke, who met Mr Laurentiu five years ago, the day after his arrival in Ireland.
As well as introducing the Bill, the Minister appealed the High Court decision to the Supreme Court on the grounds that the legislature could delegate to the Minister the power to deport aliens. Until the new Bill becomes law, he remains without that power.