Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

Tairgim leasú a 19:

I leathanach 7, línte 5 agus 6, ", an tráth a shaolaítear an duine sin," a scriosadh

agus

I leathanach 7, línte 16 agus 17, ", at the time of the birth of that person," a scriosadh.

I move amendment No. 19:

In page 6, lines 5 and 6, to delete ", an tráth a shaolaítear an duine sin,"

and

In page 6, lines 16 and 17, to delete ", at the time of the birth of that person,".

We discussed this issue at some length yesterday. This proposed amendment of the Constitution is flawed. I understand the difficulty of drafting a wording that would incorporate a person whose parent had died before they were born, without allowing for a person whose parent became a citizen after they were born. I understand the reason for inserting the wording but it is flawed. This is not a simple issue and a simple wording should not be inserted. Every word in the Constitution counts and any word could be the one on which a Supreme Court decision rests, and that is the difficulty in coming up with a wording. We experienced this problem in the past. The amendment we made to the Good Friday Agreement has resulted in this proposal, and on other occasions when we amended the Constitution we had to revisit the issue concerned. It is a complicated process. People continue to say it is a simple issue but it is not. In closing one loophole we are opening others. This is just one the Labour Party has identified but we are probably creating other loopholes with this amendment.

As I said yesterday, there was no loophole to be exploited. If we take the case, the name of which escapes me at the moment, which found that because a child has a right to citizenship it did not give their parents that right——