Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

Without pre-empting the Minister's reply, nationality and citizenship today are effectively synonymous and interchangeable terms. However, they have different nuances. Citizenship is being a civic member of a state, whereas nationality is membership of a nation. Nation and state are not precisely the same thing. Under the Good Friday Agreement, it is quite explicitly stated that "nation" has a geographical reference to the whole island of Ireland, whereas "State", very emphatically after 1998, refers to only 26 counties. I see no particular reason why one should not continue to use both terms. Citizenship is of the State, while nationality is membership of the nation, and those terms are not exactly coterminous. In this context, they have the same practical consequence, in that membership of the nation entitles one to citizenship of the State. However, one should not fall into the trap of thinking that they are the same. In practical terms, they may amount, for these purposes, to the same thing, but they are not identical terms and do not have identical references.