The Romanian applicant, having been deported to Romania, married an Irish citizen and thereafter sought to revoke the deportation order. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform refused his request stating that the couple had not been residing together as a subsisting family unit. The applicants challenged the Minister’s refusal, contending that in requiring them to have lived together as a subsisting family unit for an appreciable time, the Minister had fettered his discretion with a fixed policy.
The Court dismissed the application, finding that an appreciable period is a flexible notion capable of adaptation to the facts in specific cases and that the Minister is entitled to consider the length of time during which parties have lived together as a family unit. Principles
