Priest attacks 'distasteful' Bill

A CATHOLIC priest has described as distasteful and unacceptable a Government proposal that clergy check the immigration status of couples before marrying them.

Fr Kevin Doran, the former director of vocations for the Dublin archdiocese, said he found unacceptable a section of the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill which states that, where either spouse is not Irish, a priest must establish that the foreign national is lawfully resident, or else refuse to marry the couple and "immediately" inform the Minister for Justice.

Failure to report such people would mean priests and other solemnisers could face a five-year prison sentence and a €500,000 fine. "It's particularly distasteful, the idea that I would be asking a couple to prove to me that they were lawfully resident in the country. That's not my role. As someone who celebrates the sacraments, we don't have national boundaries," Fr Doran told The Irish Times.

"The church would have a strong tradition of care for migrants and would have a particular position on the matter. To suggest that we would be policing their immigration status in the context of celebrating the sacraments would be bad. Certainly, it's not acceptable to me."

Fr Doran pointed out that, under the Civil Registration Act 2004, which came into effect last November, every couple must have a new marriage registration form approved by the General Register Office - the State body responsible for records relating to births, deaths and marriages - prior to getting married.

It would be preferable, if the authorities wanted to establish the immigration status of couples, that they could do so at that stage of the process, he said.

Meanwhile, Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan said last week he was "open to persuasion" on the provision in the Bill that non-EEA migrants must seek his permission before marrying here.

The Bill states that a marriage "purportedly contracted in the State between two persons one or each of whom is a foreign national is invalid in law" unless the Minister for Justice is notified three months in advance. The Minister can refuse permission on a number of grounds, including that the marriage "would not be in the interests of public security, public policy or public order".

Mr Lenihan has suggested the proposal was "an attempt to curb the growing problem of marriages of convenience, a problem that is being observed not just in Ireland, but across Europe".