New law will end passports for investment

The controversial passports-for-investment scheme will be outlawed under new legislation, introduced in the wake of the citizenship referendum.

The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell told the Dáil it was fitting that a proposal "to end one undesirable form of acquisition of Irish citizenship should be accommodated in a Bill whose primary purpose was to eliminate another form of potential abuse of Irish citizenship law".

The Opposition accepted this aspect of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Bill, but Fine Gael's justice spokesman said the scheme should not be buried without a "proper post mortem", particularly of the time between 1988 and 1994 when a "total freebooter" system operated in supplying passports to people for investment in the State.

The Bill follows the citizenship referendum, which ended the automatic entitlement to Irish citizenship of children born in Ireland to non-Irish parents.

The legislation introduces a general rule that a child born in Ireland of non-national parents is entitled to citizenship only if one of the parents has lived lawfully in the State for at least three of the preceding four years before the birth.

Mr McDowell, defending the decision to hold the referendum ending the automatic right of citizenship to a child born in Ireland to non-Irish parents, criticised the Opposition for the approach parties took and the "virulent and offensive tone adopted by many of the more vocal opponents of the proposal..."

Mr Jim O'Keeffe, Fine Gael's justice spokesman, called for an amnesty for Irish citizens who were born before the referendum and, in particular, those born before the Supreme Court decision of January 2003. Before that judgment, the non-Irish parents of children born in the State were automatically granted residency.

Mr O'Keeffe said there would be between 9,000 and 10,000 people affected but, last night, the Minister said there were 16,000 cases involved.

Labour's spokesman, Mr Joe Costello, described the Government's response to immigration as "crisis-driven" and said legislation was driven by the need to tighten procedures for removing non-nationals from the State. He added that "in the atmosphere of crisis in which he revels, asking the Minister for Justice to outline an immigration policy is as realistic as expecting the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke to draw up a coastal protection plan".

He also sought "an exceptional humanitarian measure" for people caught in a legal limbo by the Supreme Court judgment.

Mr Paudge Connolly (Ind, Cavan-Monaghan) doubted that the Bill would "alter the double-think in the Irish psyche" when it came to Irish citizenship.

He pointed out that "we're not slow to claim US presidents and their Irish ancestry" and he had no doubt that future Irish-born presidents of Georgia, Latvia and, Nigeria would be awarded civic receptions when they visited Ireland.

Mr Connolly contrasted the Irish demand to deny citizenship to immigrants with the rush to offer passports to potential World Cup soccer players.

Mr Ciaran Cuffe (Green, Dun Laoghaire) called for a "radical and careful change in policy".

Rejecting the Bill, Mr Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Sinn Féin's justice spokesman, said it "institutionalises inequality on the basis of the nationality of one's parents".