The Supreme Court has ruled that the Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform was correct to refuse permission for the foreign parents of five Irish born children to remain in the State.
The decision has implications for more than 1,000 other cases.
Earlier this year the High Court quashed the decision of the Minister for Justice to refuse applications from the foreign parents of a number of children born in Ireland to remain here.
The parents made the applications under the Irish Born Child scheme, which ran from January to March 2005.
It was introduced after a previous Supreme Court decision that foreign parents of Irish born children did not have an automatic entitlement to remain in the State with the child.
Just under 18,000 people applied under the scheme. Almost 17,000 applications were granted and more than 1,000 were refused.
The High Court had ruled that the minister had to consider the constitutional and European convention rights of the Irish born children under the scheme.
The minister appealed and the Supreme Court overturned that ruling. It said the scheme was established to deal administratively with a unique group of foreign nationals in a generous manner.
The court ruled that the rights of those refused under the scheme would be considered by the minister in the course of making deportation orders.
Parents affected by today's decision have expressed disappointment.
