Ivana Bacik (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I welcome the opportunity to resume our Committee Stage debate on this important Bill. I wish colleagues well for Daffodil Day. I know we are all wearing the masks that the Irish Cancer Society has so kindly supplied. I thank the Minister for coming in to deal with the Bill and for her very constructive engagement with me. I have been glad to engage constructively with the Minister and her officials since the last occasion we were in this House. Since Section 2 is the substantive section within the Bill, I know colleagues will have quite a good deal to say on it. I know the Minister also wishes to speak, in particular, about section 2(1).I thought it might be helpful if I brought colleagues up to date on what has been happening with this Bill and the context for it.

I acknowledge last night's "RTÉ Investigates" programme. Journalist Conor Ryan is to be commended for bringing forward the experience of whistleblower Shane Corr and speaking about the rights of children and their families, who were so affected by the sharing of confidential documents and reports. My colleague, Senator Sherlock, already linked that report with the topic of this Bill during the Order of Business.

This Bill deals with the rights of children in a different context, which is that of immigration and citizenship law. In this Labour Party Bill we are seeking to provide children who are born in Ireland to parents who are not themselves Irish citizens with an easier or more accessible route to citizenship through naturalisation. We come to this from the fundamental premise that two children born alongside each other in an Irish hospital, who attend school together, should not have a different legal status or entitlement to citizenship in Ireland by virtue of their parents' legal status. What we seek to do is in keeping with the provisions of Article 9.2.1°, which was inserted into the Constitution through the citizenship referendum on the twenty-seventh amendment in 2004, and which the Labour Party opposed at that time. That amendment states:

Notwithstanding any other provision of this Constitution, a person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, who does not have, at the time of the birth of that person, at least one parent who is an Irish citizen or entitled to be an Irish citizen is not entitled to Irish citizenship or nationality, unless provided for by law.

There has been a good deal of commentary about our Bill online. I stress that the text of Article 9.2.1° expressly provides the Oireachtas with power to provide for citizenship rights for children born in Ireland to non-national parents. It expressly gives the Oireachtas the exclusive power to legislate for citizenship entitlements for those children. That is what we are seeking to do in this Bill, particularly through section 2, on which we are focusing in today's debate.

The effect of the twenty-seventh amendment was to change what had previously been the case, in both the Constitution and under the Good Friday Agreement, that is, that it was the "... entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland ... to be part of the Irish nation." The twenty-seventh amendment was implemented by subsequent legislation through the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004.

The principle of birthright citizenship is one which we in the Labour Party would like to see restored. We have made no secret of that. I commend our colleagues in Labour Youth and in particular our late colleague, Cormac Ó Braonáin, who very sadly died in 2019. He championed the "Born Here Belong Here" principle, which seeks to restore birthright citizenship to our law. What we are seeking with this Bill, which we brought forward in 2018, is not to overturn the referendum but to provide some incremental progressive change for children born in Ireland to non-national parents.

The Bill would make three changes to the naturalisation regime to make it easier for children born here to achieve citizenship. Section 2 is the crucial section for the changes we seek to make. At present, a child born in Ireland who is seeking citizenship through naturalisation must have five years' residence. We are seeking to change that requirement to three years and that is, in essence, what is provided for in section 2(1) of the Bill. The Minister has indicated that she will be making some commitment to change in this area. I welcome her commitment and constructive engagement with us on that matter.

The second change is again being made through section 2, in this case in subsection (2). It would decouple the minor's or child's entitlement to apply for naturalisation from that of the parent or guardian. The Minister may say something on that and has indicated that she will look to see if it is possible to make some change in that regard.

The third change our Bill seeks to make is through section 3, which refers to the period of residency that is to be counted prior to applying for citizenship.We believe that the Bill would not only represent an incremental progressive change if it were to be implemented, but also a sensible and compassionate approach to regularising the position of Irish-born children who have spent years of their childhoods resident in this country but who currently face an uncertain future and, in some cases, the threat of deportation. The Bill has public support. A recent Behaviour & Attitudes poll showed that more than 70% of people believe that children born in Ireland should be entitled to citizenship. It was in this spirit that we introduced the Bill in 2018. We are also motivated by the case of Eric Xue. A young boy, he was born in Ireland, goes to school in Bray and he and his family live in Bray. Despite that, his family were threatened with deportation.

The Second Stage debate took place on 21 November 2018 and colleagues will recall that Fianna Fáil and the Green Party supported the Bill. It passed Second Stage despite the then Government's opposition. Committee Stage was debated during Labour's Private Members' time on 2 December 2020, but the debate adjourned on section 1 on the basis of the Minister's commitment, for which I thank her, that we would have some engagement in the interim to determine how we could make progress. To update colleagues, I have engaged with the Minister and her officials twice since then - we met on 16 December and 10 February - which culminated in some agreement on what could be done and how we could see movement, in particular on section 2(1). We welcome that. I thank the Minister for the statement she issued on 23 March referring to this Bill and our discussions and in which she stated that she would reduce the amount of time that children born in Ireland had to be resident in the State to become Irish citizens from five years to three years. Essentially, she will be inserting section 2(1) of this Bill into a Government Bill that is to be published later this year. However, I ask that she consider the Bill's other aspects. She has committed to exploring section 2(2) and whether, in light of particular difficulties, it would be possible for Tusla to apply for citizenship on behalf of older children. I appreciate that.

The Minister and other colleagues wish to contribute, so I will finish by saying that my party and I have been grateful for the support of many NGOs, including, among others, the Migrant Rights Centre, the Immigrant Council of Ireland, the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland and the Children's Rights Alliance. The Migrant Rights Centre in particular has expressed disappointment that undocumented children will not benefit from the change the Minister has indicated she will make as a result of our discussions. The centre says that a child such as Eric Xue, prior to his family getting their status, would not benefit from this change. Thus, the centre is concerned that many children born in Ireland would still be left in a vulnerable position. It is seeking clarity on the Minister's statement about her proposed change only applying to the children of parents who were legally resident in the State. I echo the centre's calls.

I am disappointed that the amendment we proposed to section 2 has been ruled out of order, but Labour will continue campaigning on the born here, belong here principle. I look forward to further constructive engagement with the Minister on that matter. I know she wants to speak on the section.