The Irish and British governments have issued a joint declaration that the controversial citizenship referendum does not breach the British-Irish Agreement, despite claims by the North's political parties and the Opposition in the Republic that it may do.
The Government published the joint declaration last night to bolster its arguments after the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Justice mounted a concerted defence of their plan to hold a referendum on June 11th. The three separately rejected sustained criticism from the Opposition in the Republic and political parties in the North and insisted the poll, to remove the automatic right of citizenship from the children of non-nationals, would go ahead as planned.
The British-Irish Agreement dealt with the commitments of the two governments arising from the deal made on Good Friday 1998. It was completed at the same time as the Belfast Agreement, which covers the commitments of the North's political parties.
The two governments' "interpretative declaration" has been sought by the Irish Government for some days to counter claims that the amendment of the right to citizenship, which was conferred by referendum in the wake of the signing of the Belfast Agreement, involved a rewriting of the agreement. The document was published on foot of legal advice to both governments.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, last night hailed it as providing "legal certainty" that his proposal would not affect the British-Irish Agreement. "Manufactured arguments either here or in Northern Ireland suggesting that [the referendum proposal] is inconsistent with the British Irish Agreement are wide of the mark," he said earlier.
While the British-Irish Agreement gave rise to the conferring of a constitutional right to Irish citizenship of all children born in Ireland, last night's declaration says it had not been the governments' intention to confer this right on those "whose parents do not have sufficient connection with the island of Ireland". It is therefore the "legal interpretation" of the two governments that the proposed change is in accordance with their intentions at the time, and does not breach either the agreement or the obligation to implement it in good faith.
The document says that the Irish Government has told the British government that the rights of "the people of Northern Ireland" will be preserved by legislation.
Article 1 (vi) of the British-Irish Agreement recognises "the birthright of all the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves and be accepted as Irish or British, or both", and to be entitled to hold British and Irish citizenship.
Annex 2 excludes the children of non-nationals from this provision by interpreting the phrase "the people of Northern Ireland" to mean people born in the North who have at least one parent who is an Irish or British citizen or a long-term resident of either jurisdiction.
However, while this exclusion is in an annex to the agreement, it is neither in the Irish Constitution nor is it currently in Irish law. If the constitutional amendment is passed, the Government has said it will introduce legislation to say that those entitled to citizenship by virtue of birth on the island must have at least one parent who has spent three of the last four years resident on the island.
With Fine Gael, Labour and the Green Party backing a Dáil motion to defer the referendum and refer the issue to the All-Party Committee on the Constitution, Mr McDowell insisted yesterday that the referendum would go ahead on June 11th as planned.
The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, said the Dáil debate on the matter, which begins tomorrow, will allow plenty of time for discussion, and argued that June 11th was more suitable than any other date for the poll.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has written to the SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan, addressing in detail his concerns over the implications of the proposed change for the Belfast Agreement.