An “unworkable” and “unduly rigid” High Court finding that applicants for Irish citizenship must have “unbroken” residence here in the year before they apply has been overturned on appeal.

The Court of Appeal also ruled that the Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan’s approach to the one year’s continuous residence requirement of permitting citizenship applicants to be six weeks out of the country, and more in some circumstances, in the year before they apply, is “reasonable” and not rigid, inflexible or unlawful.