Amendment will guard citizenship from abuse, Government argues

Referendum: Yes campaign The Government made its final appeal for a Yes vote in the citizenship referendum yesterday, saying…

Referendum: Yes campaign The Government made its final appeal for a Yes vote in the citizenship referendum yesterday, saying it was necessary to "close the citizenship loophole".

The Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, said a Yes vote would allow new laws to strike a fair balance between protecting Irish citizenship from abuse and ensuring it is available to children whose non-national parents have lived in and contributed to Irish society.

The referendum was not about race or nationality or country of origin, she said.

"It is not about Ireland closing its doors or turning its back. It is not about human rights or the rights of children. It is about the commonsense regulation of our citizenship."

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She said opponents of the proposal had never explained why we should view our citizenship laws as superior to those operating in the other 24 member states of the EU. The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said the greatest contribution to racism and xenophobia would be if it was perceived that the Government could not control immigration. He said he did not want Yes votes from those who were against immigration. "They should vote No or stay at home."

Asked why there had been no Green Paper published in advance of the proposal, he said that, following the Supreme Court's ruling that the parents of Irish-born children had no automatic right to live in Ireland, he hoped there would be no need for further action.

However, it became clear that citizenship was still acting as a pull. "It was only in the summer of 2003 that it became apparent it had not gone away. I began to prepare for a constitutional referendum."

This proposal finally came to Government in March. At that stage, it was clear there would be no opportunity to put it to the people in conjunction with an election except in June.

"If it was held on its own in September or October, what percentage would turn out - 10 per cent, 15 per cent? What kind of people would turn out? People who feel strongly on the issue?"

Asked why there had been no response to a letter from the SDLP, he said a draft had gone from the Department of Justice to the Taoiseach's office 10 or 12 days ago, but the Taoiseach had been away on EU business.

The reply was sent to the SDLP yesterday, he said.

He said the Chen case had assumed a central role in the debate of the referendum. If the preliminary judgment was upheld, "Irish citizenship law and EU free-movement rights could now be used to overcome the immigration laws of any EU country."

Quoting from the preliminary judgment, he pointed out that it said: "The problem, if problem there be, lies in the criterion used by the Irish legislation for granting nationality, the jus soli [right of territory\], which lends itself to the emergence of situations like the one at issue in this case."

The Advocate General had also said that this situation could be avoided by the addition of a condition of settled residence of the parent within the territory of Ireland.

The Minister said no one would be rendered stateless under the existing proposal, as Ireland was a party to the International Convention on Statelessness. Anyone born in Ireland who would otherwise be stateless would be an Irish citizen.