Royalty is not in my blood. Amendment No. 4 in the names of Deputies Howlin and O'Sullivan is opposed. It seeks to remove the substance of section 4. Subsection (1) repeals section 8 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, inserted by section 3 of the 1986 Act, which provides for declarations of citizenship by non-national spouses of Irish citizens, that is, post-nuptial citizenship.
In subsection (2) provision is made for a transitional period of three years for those who married Irish citizens before the commencement of this section but for whom the three year minimum period of marriage before which a declaration cannot be made had not yet expired. The post-nuptial citizenship provisions are being replaced by a new scheme of naturalisation for spouses of Irish citizens provided for in section 5 of the Bill.
At present, under section 8 of the 1956 Act, the non-national spouse of an Irish citizen, other than a naturalised Irish citizen, may make a declaration accepting Irish citizenship as post-nuptial citizenship after three years from the date of marriage or, where later, from the date on which his or her spouse became an Irish citizen. There are conditions to be met of course. The marriage must be subsisting at the day of lodgement of the declaration and the couple must be living together as husband and wife. The Irish spouse must provide an affidavit to that effect at the time the declaration is lodged.
This provision, inserted in the 1956 Act by the amending Act of 1986, replaced the original provision under which only the wife of an Irish citizen could make such a declaration if she became a citizen from the day of her marriage. The declaration is an acceptance of Irish citizenship. Unlike the provisions relating to naturalisation, there is no requirement of residence, good character or a declaration of fidelity and loyalty to the State. Subject to the person satisfying the necessary conditions, he or she becomes a citizen from the lodgement of his or her declaration. A declaration may be lodged directly to the Minister or with any Irish diplomatic mission or consular office.
It has been the experience of both my Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs that a variety of fraudulent schemes have been organised to exploit loopholes in this provision with the intention of securing an Irish passport. These abusive practices are of serious concern. An Irish passport is a most valuable possession and gives open access to the territory of the European Union and its employment markets. The fact that declarations can be made by spouses who have never set foot in Ireland and who may never do so makes the process of validating such declarations in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform or in the Department of Foreign Affairs extremely difficult.
Most people will agree that this is not a satisfactory basis for the acquisition of Irish citizenship, particularly when these abuses are taking place. It is informative to look at the practices of our European neighbours in this area. Many European countries have a requirement of residence for a minimum period as an absolute precondition to naturalisation, regardless of whether the applicant for naturalisation is married to a national of the country. They also apply other conditions such as good character, intention to remain in the state and language competence. Greece, Denmark, Estonia and Canada have an absolute residence requirement.
Some countries have such absolute requirements but with a shorter minimum residence period for spouses of nationals and for other applicants for naturalisation. Examples are France, Germany and the UK. Similar arrangements apply in the United States. A small number of European states - Austria, Belgium and Italy - permit the naturalisation of a spouse after a certain period of marriage without regard to residence in the state in question but reduce the married period required if the spouse is resident in the state.
In short, Ireland is one of very few Council of Europe states, with Turkey, Cyprus and Portugal, where the only consideration for acquisition by a spouse of citizenship is marriage for a greater or lesser period. The termination of the scheme of post-nuptial citizenship means, effectively, that non-national spouses of Irish citizens habitually resident outside the island of Ireland will, after the transitional three year period provided in subsection (2), no longer be in a position to obtain citizenship based on their marriage alone.
However, the new section 15(a) in the 1956 Act, which is being inserted by section 5 of this Bill which provides for a special scheme for the naturalisation of spouses of Irish nationals, contains at subsection (2) a provision whereby the Minister may waive certain of the conditions for naturalisation of spouses. This is not a type of royal prerogative. The conditions which can be waived include the residence requirements in the island of Ireland at subsection (1)(f) and (g) where the applicant would suffer serious consequences in respect of his or her bodily integrity or liberty if not granted Irish citizenship.
I consider sections 4 and 5 together to be a reasonable and well balanced approach which takes account of the position in the European Union and other states. The balance achieved is between the desirability of having a means for non-national spouses to become Irish citizens on the one hand and the protection of the interests of Irish society by reducing the scope for abuses of our citizenship on the other. The conditions attaching to this special scheme of naturalisation are not in any sense unreasonable and would be regarded in many states as basic requirements for granting citizenship, something we value greatly and would not wish to see bestowed lightly and dishonoured by abuse.
We can discuss these matters in more detail when we reach section 5. However, I wish to make one thing clear. The termination of the post-nuptial citizenship scheme will not adversely affect the situation of non-national spouses in terms, for example, of their joining their Irish spouses in this State. There are well established immigration procedures which secure the admission of non-national spouses of Irish nationals. It is not, incidentally, a requirement that a non-national spouse must obtain citizenship before joining the Irish spouse here. The present——