Published on 28 February 2022

FIFTH SECTION

Application no. 45322/21 A and B against Ireland lodged on 10 September 2021 communicated on 8 February 2022

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The first applicant is an Irish citizen, born in Ireland in 2019. Her mother, the second applicant, is a Nigerian national who had sought residency in Ireland on the basis of her Irish-born child, but had not been granted leave to remain at the time of the application. The applicants complain under Article 14 of the Convention in conjunction with Article 8 and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 about sections 220 and 246 of the Social Welfare Act 2005, which excludes parents who have not yet been granted a legal right to reside in the State from receiving a monthly child benefit payment in respect of a child who has a legal right to reside. The applicants maintain that following the decision of the Supreme Court in Michael (a minor) v Minister for Social Protection [2019] IESC 82 no domestic remedy was available to them.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

1. Did the applicants suffer any significant disadvantage, within the meaning of Article 35 § 3(b) of the Convention, as a result of the application of sections 220 and 246 of the Social Welfare Act?

2. Have the applicants exhausted domestic remedies as required by Article 35 § 1 of the Convention?

3. Has there been a violation of Article 14 of the Convention, read together with either Article 8 or Article 1 of Protocol No. 1?