Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Officials in both Departments have been discussing this because of its import. There have been many cases on leave to remain and citizenship but a previous Supreme Court judgment on the rights of people making applications for asylum found they do not have a particular status and that it has been deemed that provision made for them in direct provision meets all of our obligations as a country under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The guidelines set down by the Department a couple of years ago were in keeping with that. It was a rather unusual decision by the appeals officer to interpret something in a way the Supreme Court did not. We and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform are examining the five conditions for habitual residence rather than just one.

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