The case Roderick Jones v Minister for Justice and Equality challenging the continuous residency finding of the High Court concerning citizenship applications was heard before the Court of Appeal today.
As a reminder of the circumstances surrounding this appeal, last July Mr Justice Barrett in the High Court handed down a significant judgement which held that the term “continuous residence” in s. 15(1)(c) of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 (as substituted by s. 4 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1986), meant that continuous residence requires presence in the State uninterrupted by even a single night’s absence over the 365 days of the year.
To say that this case is of significant public importance would be an understatement, with the judgment effecting thousands of current and prospective Applicants for Irish citizenship. Since the judgment was delivered in July, the processing of citizenship applications has come to standstill with the citizenship ceremonies previously scheduled for September and December 2019 both being postponed pending further notice.
Our client Mr Jones lodged an appeal against the judgment of Mr Justice Barrett with the Court of Appeal, and the case was thankfully assigned a priority hearing date at the end of July.
The case proceeded this morning before the President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice Birmingham, presiding with Ms Justice Whelan and Mr Justice McGovern.
The core issue to be decided in the appeal is whether the High Court erred in law in considering that continuity of residence in the State is affected by any type of absence at all from the State, and that any such absence meant that residence has been broken.
Detailed submissions were made to the court by both sides on behalf of the Applicant Mr Jones and the Minister for Justice and Equality.
The Court carefully listened to the legal arguments of both parties and reserved its Judgment to a later date yet to be decided. A further update will be posted as soon as we receive notification of the judgement date.
If you have any queries on your application for Irish citizenship or wish to discuss any immigration matter, do not hesitate to contact the office of Sinnott Solicitors today on +353 1 406 2862 അഥവാ info@sinnott.ie .
