Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, the High Court in Belfast ruled that people born in the North of Ireland are British citizens even where they identify as and are Irish. The ruling was made in the case of Emma DeSouza. Emma has fought a long and admirable campaign with the British Home Office to be legally recognised as an Irish citizen only. Emma's case is well known and has become a symbol of the need to protect Irish identify and citizenship in the North. Despite the fact her right to identify solely as an Irish citizen had been upheld at a number of tribunal hearings, the British Home Office dragged Emma through the courts to overturn that decision. She believes, with good reason, that this represents a hardline effort on the part of the British Government to restrict access to EU entitlements for citizens in the North of Ireland following Brexit.

Yesterday's ruling represents a clear effort by the British Government to undermine the Good Friday Agreement. In fact, the ruling tramples all over the agreement. That agreement is crystal clear that those born in the North of Ireland are entitled to identify as British, Irish, or both. However, the British Home Office refuses to recognise Emma DeSouza as an Irish-only citizen resident in the North of Ireland and, in so doing, it refuses to recognise the core legal component of the Good Friday Agreement.

The decision has also exposed the failure of successive British Governments to enshrine the relevant provisions of the Good Friday Agreement in domestic law. The identity and citizenship provisions are critical to the integrity of the agreement as a whole and they must be protected and defended to the hilt. The British Home Office must acknowledge the birthright provisions of the Good Friday Agreement and allow Emma to assert her full rights as an Irish and EU citizen. They must also understand that it is unacceptable to pursue a young woman through the courts for simply being Irish, especially when her position had already been legally vindicated.

More than 20 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the British Government continues to fail in its responsibilities as a co-guarantor. Those failures must be challenged. The Taoiseach told us that Irish citizens in the North would never again be left behind by an Irish Government and he now needs to follow through on those words and that promise. The Government, as a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, has a key role to play. The Taoiseach needs to step up and defend Emma, her rights and the rights of all Irish citizens in the North. Can he indicate what the Government proposes to do to defend the Good Friday Agreement in light of this ruling?

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