Originally, the Irish state was of the opinion that Romanian and Bulgarian national with Irish citizen children would not be entitled to have work permits here (unless they had already fulfilled other requirements granting access upon accession). The basis for this opinion was that they believed that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling in Ruis Zambrano v Office National de l’emploi (ONEm) case did not apply to individuals from Romania and Bulgaria respectively.

In March 2011, the Court of Justice of the European Union handed down its ruling in the Zambrano case. The Court held that an EU member state could not refuse the third country national parent of a dependent EU citizen child the right to live and work in the member state of which the child is a citizen.

In the past week, the Irish government have indicated that Romanian and Bulgarian parents of Irish citizen children will be granted access to the Irish labour market without the need for work permits. The Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation website has since been updated to reflect this change.

PILA facilitated legal advice on this issue for Nasc, through its pro bono referral scheme. On foot of what the legal advice said PILA organised a working group bringing together the NGOs and practitioners who resolved this important issue which will help certain Romanian and Bulgarian nationals realise their employment rights.