Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

This issue had already been anticipated by the ingenuity of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel. If one considers the theme of the Government's proposed legislation, it proposes to extend citizenship by statute to a person born on the island of Ireland if the person was born to parents, one of whom was deceased at the time of the person's birth, or if the deceased person was, immediately before he or she died, entitled to reside in the State without any restriction on his or her right of residence. The same applies in each of the four categories. The anomaly with which Senator Terry's amendment and Senator Tuffy's amendment is designed to deal is precisely the kind of thing one can deal with in legislation, without complicating and jumbling the Constitution in order to deal with these exceptions.

Curiously, at the time of the death of a person, the deletion in Senator Terry's amendment would run contrary to the annexe of the British-Irish Agreement. For the purpose of giving effect to this provision, that annexe says all persons born in Northern Ireland and having at the time of their birth at least one parent who is a British citizen, an Irish citizen or is otherwise entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on residence, should be considered to be the people of Northern Ireland, and that at time of their birth——