Many European countries ban surrogacy on the grounds that it exploits surrogate mothers, who are usually poor, and commodifies children.

The boy’s legal parents are a same sex couple in a civil partnership. One is an Irish citizen but is not the child’s biological parent.

Following his birth in 2015, the couple obtained a court order in their country of residence confirming them as his legal parents and extinguishing the parental rights of the surrogate.

In 2017 an application was made to the Minister for Foreign Affairs on the boy’s behalf for an Irish passport, but that application has not yet been decided.

The couples claim the delay is unreasonable.

The Minister, it is also claimed, has failed to recognise the parent-child relationship between the boy and his Irish citizen parent. The Minister has also failed to take into proper account the fact, in their country of residence, the boy is legally recognised as the son of the Irish citizen parent.

They claim furthermore that the failure to issue the boy with a passport is contrary to the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and amounts to a disproportionate interference with his constitutional rights.