Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are three years on from the Damache case, in which the Supreme Court declared sections 19(2) and 19(3) of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 to be unconstitutional. We sat on it for quite some time. The Supreme Court provided some form of instruction to this House in terms of what to do. The Supreme Court decision said and recognised that the decision as to whether naturalisation is granted or revoked - it is the same in respect of citizenship - is a matter for the Executive. It also said that the procedures that were in place to revoke naturalisation from a person who had been granted a certificate of naturalisation did not meet the standards of fair procedures that were required under the Irish legal system. In particular, the concern about sections 19(2) and 19(3) was that the committee of inquiry that was established was in effect set up by the Minister. At the end of the process, the Minister made the decision. It said that such an approach did not really give effect to the independent and impartial decision making that is required in a quasi-judicial process of determining whether a person's grant of naturalisation should be revoked. I am sympathetic to the argument that this is an important issue and should be dealt with in a Second Stage debate. On the other hand, there has been a considerable delay by the Oireachtas in bringing forward amendments that should be brought forward-----

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