AN IRISH COUPLE in Australia, facing deportation because their three-year-old son has cystic fibrosis, have had their appeal rejected.

Christine and Antony Hyde’s application for permanent residency was denied because their Australian-born son, Daragh, does not satisfy health criteria.

The couple, originally from Dublin, are now facing deportation after a decade of living and working in Seymour, Victoria.

Christine currently works as an assistant school principal while Anthony works part-time as a bus driver and volunteers with the local state emergency service.

Daragh was born a few weeks after the couple applied for permanent residency in August 2015. Not long after, Daragh was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. The family have found themselves embroiled in a legal battle ever since.

The family’s application was refused by the Australian Department of Home Affairs after it found that Daragh did not meet the prescribed health criteria and would be a burden to the state.

Last month the Home Affairs Department again rejected the Hydes’ application.

The couple appealed the case to the Administrative Review Tribunal which rejected it again this afternoon. The Tribunal has recommended that the case be referred to Immigration Minister David Coleman, who has the ability to overturn Daragh’s health assessment, something the Home Affairs office cannot do.

The Hyde family said they knew before today that their application was doomed to fail but hold out hope for Ministerial intervention.

“We still have a battle to get the Minister’s attention,” Christine said online.

‘The only home our son knows’

Appearing on Channel 10′s TheProject, Christine pleaded with Minister Coleman to look beyond Daragh’s medical condition.

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“We’re asking that the Minister just look at us as a whole family unit and what we already give back, rather than just a medical condition.

“Australia is supposed to be fair and everyone we know is as fair as it gets. And that’s what we find really difficult to understand about this situation,” she told TheProject.

Christine has said that Daragh is doing well considering his condition and they have letters from his doctors stating that “he should live a full life and that his disease progression will be much slower than average.”

“His condition has no effect on his cognitive ability and should he wish to finish school and go to University, he has every chance at being successful in a career path of his choosing. Darragh is a bright boy with a positive future ahead of him,” Christine posted online.

The family have also started an online petition, which has so far attracted more than 66,000 signatures, calling on Coleman to allow them to stay in “the only home our son knows”.