James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 6, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following:

“Amendment of section 2 of Act of 1956

3. Section 2 of the Act of 1956 is amended by the insertion of the following definition:

“ ‘citizenship ceremony’ means a ceremony held—

(a) before a judge, or a retired judge, of the District Court, Circuit Court, Court of Appeal, High Court or Supreme Court or such other person as may be designated for that purpose by the Minister, and

(b) at a place and in a form approved by the Minister,

at which an applicant makes the declaration and gives the undertaking in accordance with section 15(1)(e), section 15A(1)(h) or section 15B(1)(d), as the case may be;”.”.

I am introducing amendments to 1956 Act to reduce from five years to three years the number of years' residence required for someone born in this State to become eligible for citizenship by naturalisation. This will allow children who are currently on a pathway to Irish citizenship to obtain that status at an earlier stage. It has been a cause of concern for some people that children born in Ireland to non-Irish parents do not have an entitlement to Irish citizenship from birth. The Government believes that providing a shorter pathway to citizenship is the right thing to do for these children. The amendment also provides a clear and specific procedure that will apply where a citizenship application is made for a child.

I am also introducing a new section to be inserted in the 1956 Act to make further and clear provision for the continuous residence condition for naturalisation. This matter was the subject of judgments by the High Court and the Court of Appeal in 2019, in the case of Jones v. the Minister for Justice and Equality. I am also introducing an amendment to section 7 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956.

The purpose of amendment No. 2 is to insert a definition of "citizenship ceremony" into the definitions section of the 1956 Act so that the definition will apply to the entire Act, including the new provisions to be introduced by the Bill. The existing definition in section 50 of the Act will be deleted.

Amendment No. 3 seeks to remove an anomaly that has been identified in the provisions of section 7 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 relating to the entitlement to Irish citizenship of grandchildren of Irish citizen officials posted abroad in the public service. This specific issue, which has been brought to the attention of my Department, relates to the entitlement to Irish citizenship in cases where children were born outside Ireland to Irish citizens who were working abroad in the public service and subsequent generations are also born outside Ireland. The anomaly that has been identified is that under section 7, as it currently stands, grandchildren of Irish-born Irish citizen officials posted abroad in the Irish public service are in a less favourable situation than grandchildren of foreign-born Irish citizen officials posted abroad in respect of automatic entitlement to Irish citizenship by descent if born outside Ireland in the requirement for registration in the foreign birth register maintained by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Amendment No. 4 provides for amendments to section 15 of the 1956 Act which provides the conditions for issue of a certification of naturalisation.

Amendment No. 6 is the main amendment in this group. The purpose of this new section 15B is to reduce the residence requirements for naturalisation for children born in the State to three years from the current five years and to improve the clarity of the procedure for applications for certificates of naturalisation for minors. Section 15(1) of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, which has been amended on several occasions since its enactment, provides that as one of the conditions for naturalisation, the applicant must have had one year's continuous residence in the State immediately before the date of the application and four years' residence during the eight years preceding that.

The effect of the proposed new section 15B will be to change the residence requirement for minors born in the State. The current four-year residence requirement will change to two years. The requirement for one year's continuous residence in the State immediately before the date of application continues to apply. The amendments, in effect, will replace a five-year residency requirement for minors with a three-year residency requirement.

The new section 15B also makes specific provision for the conditions of naturalisation that will apply to minors. The application of the good character condition to minors was the subject of the 2019 High Court judgment where the court held that it is the character of the minor that must be considered and not that of the parent or a guardian of the minor who makes the application for naturalisation on the minor's behalf. The new section 15B will clearly address the issues arising from that judgment.

For consistency with the provision of the Children Act 2001 relating to criminal responsibility of children, the new section proposes that the good character condition will only apply to a minor under the age of 14 in the rare cases where the minor has been charged with or convicted of a most serious homicide or sexual offence. Minors under the age of 14 will not be required to make a declaration of fidelity to the nation and loyalty to the State or to undertake to faithfully observe the laws of the State and to respect its democratic values. This is in line with current practice. It will be possible for the requirement or the good character condition to be waived in respect of a minor aged 14 or over if it is considered appropriate to do so having regard to the particular circumstances of the minor concerned.

The new section restates the existing requirement that an application for naturalisation in respect of a minor is to be made on behalf of the minor by his or her parent or guardian or by a person who is in loco parentisto him or her. In consultation with the Office of the Attorney General, my officials continue to examine the possibility of enabling Tusla to apply for naturalisation on behalf of a child who is in care under the Child Care Act 1991. It is hoped this matter can be addressed on Report Stage.

The purpose of the new section 15C is to make further provision relating to the continuous residence conditions for naturalisation set out in sections 15 and 15A of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956. It has been established practice and policy to permit applicants for naturalisation to spend some time away from Ireland in any one year without it affecting their application, including in the year immediately preceding the date of application for naturalisation. The continuous residence condition of naturalisation was the subject of a High Court and Court of Appeal judgments in 2019 in the case of Jones v. the Minister for Justice and Equality. I believe that legislation is necessary to put this matter on a clear statutory footing.

The new section 15C provides that absences totalling a standard 70 days, as well as up to 30 additional days necessitated in certain defined exceptional circumstances, will not impact on an applicant's compliance with the continuous statutory residence requirement. For minors, the intention is that the specified exceptional circumstances could only apply to a minor applicant in his or her own right, for example, if he or she had to go abroad for medical treatment or for educational reasons. Specific provision is made for cases where a minor applicant is absent from the State due to circumstances applying in respect of his or her parent or guardian. While it is not possible to pre-empt every eventuality that may arise, it is considered that these provisions are reasonable and balanced and afford flexibility to applicants for naturalisation.

The definition of family is broad and includes spouses and civil partners, cohabitants, children, siblings, parents, step-parents, grandparents, children, aunts and uncles. The new section 15D is consequential on the new sections 15B and 15C. The new section 15E contains transitional provisions to ensure where an application for naturalisation is made before commencement of this Act but has not been determined, the applicant may benefit from its provisions.

Amendment No. 71 provides for amendments to the Long Title of the Bill to reflect these amendments.