Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to join my colleagues, Senators Sherlock and Chambers, in expressing my deep concern about the so-called Nationality and Borders Bill that has passed through Westminster. Even its very name is telling when we consider that a key part of the withdrawal agreement was to ensure that there would be no hardening of the Border in Ireland. This legislation hardens the Border for thousands of our fellow EU citizens and non-EU citizens who are resident in this State. It should be a cause of deep concern for all of us for a whole range of reasons, not just the legal and bureaucratic layers that it will add to people’s lives but when you consider that tens of thousands of journeys are made across the Border each day. Thousands of EU and non-EU citizens straddle the Border. They live and work in the area, in food processing plants and in our healthcare sector. They provide vital services to people, North and South, not least during the last two years of the pandemic. We need to hear a clear response from the Irish Government. We need to hear concern expressed and what response the Irish Government and the EU will take in regards to this legislation. There is a whole range of questions. I have relayed my concerns in this House previously about the potential and actual concerns regarding racial profiling at the Border. How, for example, will someone know whether somebody is an Irish citizen, a British citizen, a French citizen or a Polish citizen? What are they looking for here? Who is going to enforce this? Who is going to police this? What will be the outcome if, for example, someone from Donegal has a car accident in Derry and they do not have one of these so-called waivers? The public commentary that I have seen from the British Government is almost blasé about this. It is almost a case of it being an online form and that it will be easy and straightforward. It will not be easy and straightforward if this has real, dire legal consequences for people who are making journeys they should be entitled to make. While I know the Leader is of a similar view, it would be useful and important that both Members and those thousands of citizens on whom this measure potentially will have an impact hear a clear message from the Government too.