I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
I welcome the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to the House. I am glad to have the opportunity to introduce this Bill, which is intended to close off a dangerous loophole in our nationality and citizenship legislation. The loophole permitted the passports for sale scheme in the late 1980s and much of the 1990s. Many people in Government at that time were tempted to regard Irish citizenship as a matter in their own personal gift. Irish passports were issued to non-nationals in circumstances which, although they remain obscure today, were certainly of a dubious nature.
The Bill is not concerned with the past, except in so far as it aims to avoid the repetition of the mistakes I have mentioned. It is concerned with the future, in which the past could be repeated if we do not enact this Bill. When the Government ended the scheme in 1998, the legislative loophole that gave birth to the scheme in the first instance was not closed. To his credit, the Minister, Deputy McDowell, has said that he accepts this point. Under current legislation, there is nothing to stop a future Government from reintroducing a passports for sale scheme. No statutory or regulatory constraints are in place to prevent such a measure. There is nothing to prevent a future Taoiseach or Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform from handing out Irish passports on his or her personal whim. In presenting this Bill, I am arguing that the loophole in question is too important to leave unclosed.
The principal Act in this case is the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended in 1986 and 2001. The Act deals with the manner in which Irish citizenship may be acquired by birth or descent on the one hand, or by naturalisation on the other. The Bill before the House relates to naturalisation, which is governed by section 15 of the 1956 Act, which sets out the criteria to be applied by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in considering applications for naturalisation. The criteria apply mainly to the period the applicant has spent as a resident of Ireland and to his or her intention to continue living in Ireland. The criteria also extend to other matters, such as the requirement to be of good character and the necessity to make declaration of "fidelity to the nation and loyalty to the State". The criteria are simple and clear and nobody can say that they are too demanding.
Section 16 of the 1956 Act gives us trouble, however. It sets out the circumstances under which the relevant Minister may issue a certificate of naturalisation without the section 15 criteria having been satisfied. We need to be concerned with the first of these circumstances only. This section of the Bill states that the Minister may, in his absolute discretion, grant an application for a certificate of naturalisation in the following cases, although the conditions for naturalisation (or any of them) are not complied with:
(a) where the applicant is of Irish descent or Irish associations;
The key phrase that need concern us is "Irish associations". The effect of section 16(a) is to give the Minister extraordinary powers to grant Irish citizenship to anyone at all who can claim “Irish associations”. One might well ask what this phrase means. When this legislation was being put in place in 1956, several Members of the Oireachtas were appalled by its breadth and vagueness. I like the suggestion made at the time that “if an Arab in Cairo drinks a glass of Irish whiskey”, he could claim to have “Irish associations”. Another example was given of an Asian playing in an Irish band in New York.
The 1956 debate was a very interesting one. Despite the clear misgivings expressed at that time, most notably by the former Deputy Frank Aiken, the original provision was allowed to stand. The main argument in its favour was that it was inconceivable that any Minister would use this power other than very rarely and in an appropriate manner. We all know that later events proved that this argument was wrong. Everyone's prime concern in the late 1980s was the creation of jobs. It was suggested, perhaps by the IDA, that inward investment could be attracted to the country in return for offering Irish citizenship to the promoters of that investment. When people examined this matter they discovered, no doubt to their surprise, that no legislation was needed to start such a scheme. Regulations by means of a statutory instrument were not needed. Those involved could start a passports for sale scheme overnight, provided that they relied on the "Irish associations" provision in section 16.
A scheme was commenced without legislative approval or ministerial regulations. The Government of the day started a passports for sale scheme with an informality that was staggering when one considers the importance of the issues involved. The conditions of the scheme were not properly set out and were, basically, open for negotiation in each individual case. The amount of money that needed to be invested was not laid down precisely. The means and duration of payment were not stated. There was no mechanism for properly checking the good character of applicants. There were no arrangements for checking what was promised by the investments, whether the promises materialised or whether the promised employment was created. The scheme was not properly regulated because it did not have to be. Why bother with that when the existing law gave the Minister such complete and sweeping powers? I do not deny for a moment that, over the life of the scheme, some very worthwhile investments were made and that some jobs were either created or saved. However, alongside this is the undeniable truth that many of the applications turned out badly. Some of the 107 granted citizenship were very dubious characters, some of the promised investments never materialised and some of the promised jobs were never created. Some of the money involved seems to have entered the pockets of middlemen who specialised in facilitating this very process.
Once the possibilities of the sweeping powers became known, it did not take long for the practice of handing out passports to foreigners to become another shot in the locker of a Government that wanted to please its friends. Such was the public disquiet over the scheme that it was decided, a bit late in the day, to lay down rules to govern it. Once again, the rules were not statutory because it was not necessary to make them so. The presence of the non-statutory rules did not mean that they were followed or policed in any meaningful way. It took until 1998 – just five years ago – before the then Government, responding to widespread pressure, finally put an end to the scheme. By then, it had become abundantly clear that the scheme had done more damage to the reputation of Ireland than it had done good.
Although the scheme was ended, the loophole was left in place. The apparent reason for this was a thoroughly bad one. It was suggested that, at some future date, economic circumstances might generate the need to start a similar scheme all over again. This disregarded the fact that the history of the scheme had clearly shown that any future scheme should be set up on a statutory basis, with a full set of legally binding regulations and a policing mechanism to ensure the rules were properly observed. It was specifically recommended by the review group who examined the matter – its report was published in August 2002 – that any future scheme should be statutorily based. Not even that group claimed there was any need to maintain the loophole. Since any future scheme would have its own statutory base, there was no reason to leave the loophole gaping open as it was.
This Bill completes the work of ending the scheme by restricting the unlimited powers of the Minister, as set out in the principal Act. Section 3, which is at the heart of the Bill, specifically takes from the Minister the freedom to interpret Irish associations as being created by the promise of an investment in an Irish business. Section 4 adds a further safety net in that it similarly restricts the power of the Minister for Foreign Affairs to issue passports. I am not arguing that it has never been an issue; the key document is really the certificate of naturalisation.
Nothing in this Bill restricts in any way the power of the Government to bestow Irish citizenship on a non-national as a token of honour. This is covered in section 12 of the principal Act and would remain untouched. In commending this Bill to the House, I appeal to the Government to carry it through to its enactment. It is the natural conclusion to what the Government itself did by ending the scheme in the first place. By closing the loophole we will be treating Irish nationality and citizenship with the considerable respect they deserve from us as legislators.
I believe the Minister is fully supportive of what I have proposed. I tabled this issue as an Adjournment debate on 19 December 2002. The Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Parlon, quoted the Minister. I have actually used the Minster's words to a large extent in trying to put forward this Bill. I commend the Minister for what he has done. He has been very forthright and determined in saying he also disapproves entirely of a scheme such as the so-called passports for sale scheme. His heart is in the right place. The only discussion we might have might be on the question of whether this Bill goes far enough. It does. It will, inter alia, be fulfilling Article 9.1.2º of the Constitution which states: “The future acquisition and loss of Irish nationality and citizenship shall be determined in accordance with law.” This Bill is a useful and essential step towards taking the next step, whatever that may be. It could well be that there will be amendments to the Bill. I commend it to the House and it is worthy of consideration.