Denis O'Donovan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)

I was making the point, before I was interrupted by Deputy Costello, that the 1995 Government under the then Taoiseach, Deputy John Bruton, and the then Minister for Justice, Nora Owen, would not allow this issue to be dealt with by the Constitution Review Group chaired by Dr. T.K. Whitaker. That precedence, therefore, is already established.

When these articles were subsequently amended following the Belfast Agreement, their formulation was infused by the national concern to be as inclusive as possible. Subsequently, and this underscores the point I have been making about the natural complexity of constitutional issues, this formulation allowed the inclusion of the children of non-national parents as citizens.

The current Government proposal is to fix a defect in the wording of the 1999 amendment and no more. It aims to do this by amending Article 9.2 by inserting the following:

1° Notwithstanding any other provision of this Constitution, a person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, who does not have, at the time of the birth of that person, at least one parent who is an Irish citizen or entitled to be an Irish citizen is not entitled to Irish citizenship or nationality, unless otherwise provided for by law.

2° This section shall not apply to persons born before the date of the enactment of this section.

This is clearly a narrow technical intrusion in the text, and no more.

The major issues of nationality, citizenship and naturalisation and their relationship to European citizenship clearly call for a more profound examination and my committee proposes to carry out this in due course. The great value of an all-party Oireachtas committee is that it allows a wide range of political views to be brought to bear on proposals and it works towards consensus. Where the committee invites submissions from the public and holds oral hearings, it further enlarges the wholeness of the discussion. This also helps towards the development of a consensus among the people who determine whether a proposal is carried. This is very valuable in regard to constitutional proposals.

As Deputy Morgan said earlier, we had a brief discussion about this issue in our committee and, as Chairman, I would like to have a full debate on the range of articles concerning this area but as far as this technical amendment is concerned, I believe there is no difficulty with it. The Government is entitled to move forward on this issue if it believes it is important. I support the Government proposal.

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