David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I hope that in this instance Senator Norris will respect the international binding agreement and law of the Good Friday Agreement between the British and Irish Governments which extends, as of birthright, Irish citizenship to people in the North. I hope that we as a House will support these calls when they come before us next week. This is an issue of rights, equality and the enfranchisement of all our people. I wanted to make Members aware of this. It is, as I indicated to the Leader a few weeks ago, the inevitable kick-back one gets when one continues to deny people something that is so fundamentally important to them. At a time when we should be embedding links across the country and when we have all expressed concern about any re-emergence of a hard Border, Irish citizens in the North and among the diaspora are genuinely concerned as to what rights and entitlements they will have and what the Irish Government, as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement and as compelled to act as a result, will do to stand up for their interests. In a post-Brexit scenario, but also as a matter of course and a matter of right, they should have such rights.