Ms Emma DeSouza:

Ireland's legislation is a good example here. Under Ireland's nationality laws, if another entitlement to citizenship exists, then Irish citizenship is an entitlement - it is not automatically conferred. In terms of statelessness in Northern Ireland, there would be entitlement to Irish and British citizenship, therefore one cannot be rendered stateless if one has an entitlement to both of those. In terms of how that would be enacted through legislation, I am awaiting the outcome of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission's report, which I believe addresses a lot of these issues and how one could amend the legislation. There are legal solutions there, and one can look at Ireland's legislation as an example of that, and at international law and how it operates with statelessness. My understanding is that under international law if an entitlement to citizenship exists, then one cannot be rendered stateless. It has to be a personal choice for each individual to make as to whether they want to be Irish or British or both. I do not think that both being automatically conferred at birth would necessarily be the right solution.