Results 61-80 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage. (21 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: That is the election story.

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage. (21 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: The Minister played the card and he should withdraw the remark.

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage. (21 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: He did and he must withdraw his comments.

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage. (21 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: The Minister should withdraw his comments.

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage. (21 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: He must.

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: The wonderful thing about democracy is that Governments do not always get their own way. Arrogant Governments, like the one we have, are more prone than others to getting their comeuppance when they cross the delicate line between public interest and party gain. Ministers from both parties thought this referendum idea was a master stroke. Today, the whole idea must seem, even to them, rather...

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: He said he knew about it, as a practising solicitor, and that a number of eminent legal heads were aware also. Let us recall, however, the information the Referendum Commission posted to every house in the country. Knowing that information, the people still voted for the Agreement and did not accept this argument. It stated: The new Article 2 will give a constitutional right of citizenship to...

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: ——yet we all said it was right to vote for the Good Friday Agreement. We so voted and were right then as we won the peace prize. The Minister is wrong now, for baser political motives, to jeopardise what has been won in regard to the Agreement.

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: No one on the Government benches can say they were not aware of possible consequences. The Referendum Commission set it out in plain English, and it is curious and revealing to see the examples Ministers chose to justify——

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: No, I do not.

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: Middle Eastern sheiks who came laden with bejewelled daggers and gifts for a corrupt Taoiseach had Irish citizenship delivered to them by ministerial hands at the Shelbourne Hotel breakfast table with no protest from the present Taoiseach. That is the reality. I do not know if the Minister or the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is aware of this but last year 3,500 people in...

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: The Minister and his Government colleagues are not worried about the people concerned because they are 99% white.

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: They have the run of Europe with their Irish passports, of which Ministers are quite proud. They are mostly white; some might be of mixed race and Irish descent. The concern of the Minister is exclusively with a small, as yet unquantified number largely of black African origin who are slipping through whatever vetting procedure is in train. Incidentally, the trafficking of women, whether...

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: The Minister should do his job and have proper checks in place.

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: The United States has experienced a problem like this on a more vast scale but no US President has ever dared to upend so sacred a feature as birth-related citizenship to overcome the effects of small-scale abuse that inevitably happens when we have a liberal law or, as with child benefit in the case of social welfare, universal entitlements. Although there was a debate on changing the law in...

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: The argument that was persuasive in Canada and the United States was that the seemingly random "accident of birth" rule was actually a fair, democratic and objective way to determine citizenship, not dependent on race, colour, wealth or the political clout of parents. North American countries have maintained a generous approach to citizenship and have thriving economies. Their approach to...

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: Thus children born to non-national parents, unlike any other children born in Ireland, may be denied these rights if the amendment is passed. As Professor William Binchy has written, the effect of the referendum would be to cast a shadow over the protection afforded by the Constitution to the rights of children born in Ireland of foreign parents who have lived in Ireland for a certain period...

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: They have dealt with it by working with their French and continental colleagues. I am sure the Minister has access to the detailed report. The Minister has chosen to present to the Irish people this master political stroke of a referendum. I was in Trinity College the other night to chair a debate on the issue. The Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, ought to be a bit concerned and...

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: Our young people live in a multicultural and multi-racial society and are not racist. By playing the card of this referendum without proper consultation or procedure, the Minister has chosen a political stroke to deal with something which is problematic and a delicate social issue. When I worked in the Department of Justice, I was told a story by an old staff member, now probably long...

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (22 Apr 2004)

Joan Burton: I did. I referred to the American experience.