Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

That is correct. The minimum guarantee is that the group of people referred to will be guaranteed citizenship. There is the possibility of a mother being kept alive on a machine, for example, though that would be rare. It is much more likely that an Irish father would predecease the child. In those circumstances one would encounter all sorts of complications. I do not want to get into the question of AI donors, and so on. We could be here until doomsday discussing such scenarios. The issues we have spoken of should be dealt with by legislation rather than by constitutional provision.

Certain remarks of mine may have been unintentionally misinterpreted by others. On one occasion, when confronted with a microphone, I used the phrase "manufactured arguments, North and South", in reference to arguments against the amendment. I used that phrase while having in mind some of the arguments used in the South which I believed to be manufactured. I will not go back down that road again. When I was talking of Northern Ireland, I was thinking more of the arguments based on the proposition which the DUP came up with, that this was some unravelling of the British-Irish Agreement and showed that anything could be changed in Dublin. I did not mean that the SDLP's concerns were manufactured. I have never thought that about the SDLP's concerns, but I used the phrase "manufactured arguments North and South" and I can well appreciate that some SDLP members might have thought that I was referring to their reservations. I was not doing so. I was talking of what I believe are the entirely opportunistic arguments advanced by the DUP.

I also want to put another matter formally on the record, because it would be of value, particularly to the SDLP. Regarding the administrative arrangements which will be necessary to make the legislation workable, we will of course closely consult with those people north of the Border, so that people from Northern Ireland are not burdened with greater practical requirements to prove their entitlement to Irish citizenship in a way that is unreasonable.

My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, has stated clearly that any attempt on foot of this legislation to differentiate between people born north of the Border and those born south of the Border would be unconstitutional. That is my understanding too. This amendment does not permit a distinction to the entitlement of Irish people or people of Northern Ireland under the British-Irish Agreement to be drawn on the basis that they were born north or south of the Border. Obviously, a distinction can be drawn with regard to how they go about proving it, but that is simply one which will be overcome in a non-discriminatory fashion.