Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

On the contrary, the effect of the referendum on the Constitution in 1999 is that it put back into the Constitution the concept of citizenship and it was embedded in the Constitution. Before that, citizenship rights were derived from the Citizenship Act 1956 and not from the Constitution. That was the right and proper way to deal with the issue, but unfortunately it was an unforeseen consequence of the Good Friday Agreement.

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