Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

Those who are losing the argument simply do not want to listen. At the core of the debate are some very simple questions about whether we deal with our immigration and citizenship policy through our Constitution or in legislation? There is no doubt that when one analyses the arguments cogently, the Constitution is no place to include detailed provisions on citizenship and immigration policy. At the heart of the debate is the question of how to deal with immigration policy in this House and in the country? I make the case that the Constitution is no place in which to make policy. The 1937 Constitution delegated to the Oireachtas the power to formulate policy on citizenship and immigration, little though there was at that stage. I believe that was the correct and proper way of doing it. Unfortunately, one of the unforeseen consequences of the referenda to change Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution was that we inserted in the Constitution the basis of citizenship. I believe that was a mistake. Many people who studied those proposals foresaw that this would be a difficulty. At the heart of this debate, we have to discuss the right way to deal with our immigration and citizenship policy. I believe it is best dealt with through detailed legislation. The reason I say that is that 20, 30 or 40 years ago there was practically no inward migration to this country. If one was born in this country, one worked and died here and very rarely did one leave the country. Now the world is completely different due to a range of factors, including non-stop cheap airline travel all over the world, which is a unique feature of modern life, employment migration and asylum seeking by those suffering persecution in their own countries which is enhanced and facilitated by easy access to airline travel.

A feature of modern global living is the international education of students. The concept of global citizenship is something with which we will have to deal now, which we never had to deal with previously. For those reasons, a bland line or two in a constitution stating that if one is born in a country, one has a right to citizenship, does not take cognisance of the complexities and the nuances of the modern world. I am no expert in the field, but the expert group comprising former Attorneys General, judges and constitutional experts came to the same conclusion seven years ago when it reported to the Constitutional Review Group, stating that provisions on citizenship have no place in the Constitution.

See this speech in context