Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland

The Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland provided that children born on the island of Ireland to parents who were both non-nationals would no longer have a constitutional right to Irish citizenship. It was effected by the Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Act, 2004, which was approved by referendum on 11 June 2004 and signed into law on the 24 June of the same year. It partially reversed changes that had previously been made to the constitution as part of the Belfast Agreement of 1998.

Changes to the text

*Insertion of new Article 9.2.1:::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.

*Insertion of new Article 9.2.2:::This section shall not apply to persons born before the date of the enactment of this section.

*(Previous Article 9.2 retained but renumbered as Article 9.3)

Overview

In 2004 an automatic right to citizenship by birth had existed in the state in law since 1922 and in the constitution since 1999. The adoption of the Twenty-seventh Amendment was intended to permit laws that would remove this right under certain circumstances, and thus remove a "loop-hole" in Irish citizenship laws that the Government argued was being exploited by foreign nationals. Since 1999 Article 2 of the constitution has stated (in relevant part):

:"It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish Nation. That is also the entitlement of all persons otherwise qualified in accordance with law to be citizens of Ireland."

The introduction of this guarantee in 1999 formed a part of the Belfast or 'Good Friday' Agreement and was largely intended to ensure that people from Northern Ireland would not be deprived of Irish citizenship. However after Article 2 was changed complaints started to be made that foreign asylum seekers and/or illegal immigrants were deliberately presenting themselves at hospitals in the Republic or in Northern Ireland in the late stages of pregnancy in order to secure citizenship for their children.

In January 2003 the Supreme Court of Ireland added to this controversy by ruling that it was constitutional for the Government to deport the parents of children who were Irish citizens. In May 2004 the European Court of Justice ruled in the case of Kunqian Catherine Zhu (the "Chen case") that a non-native mother whose child was born in Northern Ireland and thus acquired Irish citizenship had the right to live with her child in the United Kingdom. The implications of this ruling were that the parent of an Irish citizen who is still a child would have the right to reside anywhere in the European Union. The mother had been living in Wales and had been liable to deportation there but had travelled to Northern Ireland on legal advice to give birth.

The effect of the Twenty-seventh Amendment was not to immediately remove the right to citizenship by birth but rather that it would cease to be a "constitutional right". After the amendment the right to citizenship by birth still existed in law and it remained for the Oireachtas (parliament) to pass ordinary legislation that would remove it. Furthermore the amendment did not remove the constitutional right to citizenship by birth from everyone. Today a constitutional right to citizenship still exists for anyone who is "both":

*Born on the island of Ireland (including its islands and seas).
*Born to at least one parent who is, or is entitled to be, an Irish citizen.

Under Subsection 2° no one who was already an Irish citizen before the amendment was adopted would have their citizenship taken away from them. While the changes shown above are those made to the English language version of the constitution, constitutionally it is the Irish text that has precedence.

Referendum

Campaign

The Twenty-seventh amendment was introduced by the Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrats coalition government of Bertie Ahern. It was also supported 'in principle' by Fine Gael (the main opposition party) but Fine Gael complained that there had not been sufficient consultation and refused to mount any referendum campaign. The amendment was opposed by the Labour Party, the Green Party, Sinn Féin, and the Socialist Party, as well as by the Republic's official Human Rights Commission and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (an NGO). It was also opposed by Northern Ireland's SDLP, as Irish citizenship is an option for people born there.

The government presented the amendment as a common sense proposal that would close a constitutional loop-hole and allow Irish law to be brought into line with the rest of Europe. In 2004 no other nation of the European Union granted citizenship by birth in the same manner as the Republic of Ireland. However citizenship by birth does exist in some non-European nations such as the United States.

Some criticisms of the amendment related merely to the manner in which it was proposed. Some argued that the amendment had been rushed through without proper debate and consultation. Because the constitutional right to citizenship had been introduced as part of the Belfast Agreement it was argued that there should have been consultation with Northern Ireland political parties; in fact the only signatory of the Agreement initially consulted was the British government. In the lead-up to the referendum the Irish and British governments issued a joint statement saying that they did not regard the constitutional change proposed as affecting either the content or the intentions of the Belfast Agreement. However opponents of the Agreement, such as the Democratic Unionist Party, would later cite the amendment as evidence that the Agreement was open to renegotiation.

The referendum on the amendment was held on the same day as both European and local elections and so some argued that the Government was attempting to exploit popular prejudices in order to boost its election prospects. It was also argued that the Government had not presented sufficient evidence to show the amendment was necessary and that the numbers exploiting the constitutional "loop-hole" were in fact statistically small.

In the referendum, the amendment was ultimately approved, by a large majority of almost 80% in favour.

Result

ee also

*Irish nationality law
*Articles 2 and 3
*Politics of the Republic of Ireland
*History of the Republic of Ireland
*Constitutional amendment

External links

* [http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2004/en/act/cam/0027/index.html Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Act, 2004] (Full text at [http://www.irishstatutebook.ie IrishStatuteBook.ie] )
* [http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/html%20files/Constitution%20of%20Ireland%20(Eng).htm Full text of the Constitution of Ireland] (Accurate up to and including the Twenty-seventh Amendment from [http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/ Department of the Taoiseach] )