28. The ICI, the Institute and the ENS submit that the practice of discretionary granting of ‘Temporary Travel Documents’ in exceptional circumstances only is not in compliance with Ireland’s obligations under Article 28 of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons to “issue to stateless persons lawfully staying in their territory travel documents for the purpose of travel outside their territory, unless compelling reasons of national security or public order otherwise require”. 29. We note also that, “Contracting States may issue such a travel document to any other stateless person in their territory; they shall in particular give sympathetic consideration to the issue of such a travel document to stateless persons in their territory who are unable to obtain a travel document from the country of their lawful residence”. Permission to Remain in the State 30. Pursuant to Irish immigration law, namely section 4(1) of the Immigration Act 2004, “an immigration officer may, on behalf of the Minister [for Justice and Equality], give a nonnational a document, or place on his or her passport or other equivalent document and inscription, authorising the non-national to land or be in the State”. Moreover, under section 4(7) of the same Act, such permission may be renewed and its conditions varied on application by the person concerned. This is the standard procedure for the issuing of residence permits in Ireland – no special provision has been introduced to provide a basis for the granting of residence permits to stateless persons. 31. It is the experience of the Immigrant Council of Ireland – Independent Law Centre and other practitioners in this area, that, in practice, those who present to the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) as stateless persons and are able to provide evidence of their inability to return to their former country of habitual residence and/or have grounds for remaining in Ireland, for example humanitarian or family reasons, are generally granted permission to remain in the State under those provisions without formal recognition of their statelessness. However, due to the lack of formal recognition, they then have difficulties accessing Irish citizenship and with that are prevented from finding a durable solution to their situation. Case Study 2: Olev is an ethnic Russian from Estonia. In 2001, when he was 14 years old, his district of IdaVirumaa became part of Estonia following its succession from the former USSR. As an ethnic Russian, Olev was issued with a so-called ‘Alien’s Passport’ which described his nationality as ‘undetermined’. Olev moved to Ireland in 2002 with a residence permit as the husband of an EU national but this relationship ended in 2007. He re-married in April 2007 but because his residence permit had expired a month earlier the Irish authorities refused to issue him with a new one. Olev remained living and working in Ireland. In March 2010 his ‘Alien’s Passport’ expired. However, the Estonian embassy in Dublin refused to renew it and he was told that he needed to show he was lawfully resident in Estonia by obtaining a residence permit. However, Olev could not satisfy the necessary criteria so in January 2013 his solicitors again applied for him to be granted an EU residence permit based on his continuing marriage to an EU spouse but this 9