Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Before I was rudely interrupted I was making the point that citizenship brings with it a sense of responsibility, duties and all the obligations of being a member of society which do not come by virtue of the fact that one is handed an Irish passport. I was conscious of that not just as a public representative but as a teacher in my time in Sion Hill as a transition year co-ordinator where I encouraged and promoted social work and devised a rights and responsibilities course to enable young people to see they needed to develop a sense of civic responsibility and a desire to contribute to their communities. If people are to feel they are a part of a society and part of a community the concept of active participation has to be promoted. The active participation of Ireland and of Irish society is something everybody here holds dear. Rightly, we are all proud of being Irish and all that entails.

I consider myself to be a citizen of Ireland as does everybody in the House, not just because I was born here. I am a citizen of Ireland because my parents and grandparents lived and worked here and contributed to society. I too continue to make a contribution to society. Citizenship does not imply any cultural or ethnic uniformity but it implies that contribution. The contribution to society of those who have come from all over the world to settle here has been immense. It has enriched our society not only economically but culturally. Diversity enriches the whole cultural expression. It makes our life more interesting. It can be seen in all aspects of society. For example, Dún Laoghaire town football club is a co-operation between the council, the Garda, the local community and asylum seekers — the young people based in Dún Laoghaire. Last year Dún Laoghaire had a very successful festival of world cultures which recognised and valued that diversity. That same diversity is recognised by businesses and employers in the workforce because it promotes innovation and creativity. As we work in a global environment it helps to have people working in society who have first-hand knowledge of the emerging markets in Asia and so on who are able to help our competitiveness.

The Irish have travelled abroad for many years. Through travel and communication we understand the whole of the world and appreciate the importance of giving in the country in which one lives. In the same way we see the importance of people who give to Irish society, the immigrants who have come here. We value not only the diversity we see and appreciate, but we need an adequate workforce to keep the Irish economy and, in the long term, to help pay the pensions of the future. The vast majority of non-nationals are here to work and to contribute to society.

Given that 50,000 work permits were issued last year — up ten times on that for 1999 — we recognise the importance of these people, many of whom will live here and bring up their children here. They want to be here, we are proud to have them here and we invite them to make Ireland their home and to promote an inclusive inter-cultural Ireland where everybody can play a part. As they live here, perhaps they will decide that Irish citizenship is something they want because of the contribution they make to society. They can apply for citizenship through the naturalisation process and get Irish citizenship with all the rights and responsibilities that go with it. Given the importance of inter-culturalism and the changes in society which we welcome it is important that the opportunity is not undermined by the development of a suspicion about the motives of some people who seek Irish citizenship not as an expression of membership of the Irish community but as a passport to Europe. It is vital to the promotion of a positive sense of inter-culturalism not to allow abuses of citizenship law by a minority to cast disdain on the majority of immigrants who contribute so much to our society.

The draft Bill, which the Government has proposed as a starting point for the debate, if the referendum is passed, will make a positive distinction between those who place a value on participation in society and those who have no connection with this country who see Irish citizenship purely as a passport. The Government has proposed that as a starting point for the debate in the House if the referendum is passed. It will make a positive distinction between those who place a value on participation in Irish society and those who have no connection to this country and who see Irish citizenship purely as a passport. That is basically what this proposal does — it recognises that there are people who want to live and work here and to be a part of Irish society. We do not want to take from them by allowing this situation to be abused by a small group of people. It is an incredible distortion of what it means to be Irish to have a constitutional framework which confers citizenship and all of the legal and political rights which go with it on people with no tangible connection with the country. It gives all those rights to people whose parents came here purely to obtain an Irish birth certificate and an EU passport before flying back to the EU country of their choice, where they can avail of their rights as an Irish citizen.

By conferring Irish citizenship on the future children of these estranged Irish-born citizens we are not just creating one generation but a couple of generations of Irish people who have no connection with Ireland. That is an unacceptable abuse of our citizenship laws and it undermines the integrity and value of what it means to be an Irish citizen. It is in the interests of those who genuinely seek Irish citizenship, as a recognition of their present and future contribution to Irish society, that we close this loophole and protect the integrity of Irish citizenship.

The three-year residency requirement proposed by the Minister in the draft Bill will recognise the contribution of those who are living in Ireland and contributing to Irish society by giving Irish citizenship to their children at birth. The children of non-Irish or British parents, who do not acquire citizenship at birth but who go on to make their lives in Ireland and become real citizens in the sense we believe in, can then get Irish citizenship through the naturalisation process.

The requirement for a referendum to restore the right of the Oireachtas to set the conditions under which Irish citizenship is obtained is necessary both to restore the integrity of our citizenship process and to protect the value of the interculturalism in Irish society. We need to close the loophole which equates the entitlements of people whose only connection to Ireland is a short return trip from abroad to one of our maternity hospitals with those who have already and will continue to contribute to Irish society in the true spirit of what it means to be an Irish citizen.

It is because I believe in Irish citizenship and all that comes with it — that it is more than a passport and means more than someone who is lucky enough to be born on the island of Ireland — I support the referendum. That is in deference to all of those people who are making a valuable contribution to the country. The referendum is straightforward, reasonable and necessary. When they think about it, the Irish people will see it is a fair and sensible proposition. It is a timely step to take at a time when a majority of people will be voting on 11 June. The 16-hour debate we are having can add to the debate, as will the public debate between now and polling day. When we think about this seriously, it is not a debate on racism, interculturalism, asylum seeking or immigration. It is about one issue only — what it is to be a citizen of Ireland. Does it mean more than being born in Ireland and handed a passport? I believe it does.

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