Citizenship vote will damage Good Friday Agreement, says co-author

THE citizenship referendum is a devastating blow to the credibility of the Good Friday Agreement, a former US congressman and co-author of the Agreement indicated yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference organised by the Immigrant Council of Ireland, Bruce Morrison said the Government's willingness to tamper with Article Two of the Constitution sent the wrong signal at the worst time.

"The message is clear, if you complain enough, and you're stubborn enough, then the deal can be re-struck. That is devastating to the idea that people have to suck it up and do the business in the North and that's exactly the wrong message to be sending at this moment when, frankly, the institutions have fallen apart and the Governments are flailing about trying to get this thing restarted.

"They're telling people that they might get a better deal at another time and the Governments might make a change," he said.

Urging a No vote in June's referendum, Mr Morrison best known for the Morrison Visa scheme said the Government was asking voters to agree to a U-turn on previous policy.

"If the Constitution is changed as proposed, it would be a 180-degree turn in Irish tradition and Irish law about what it takes to be an Irish citizen," he said, adding that citizenship on the basis of birthplace is the model of all the great immigrant-receiving societies, including the US.

"It is not an accident, because such a rule is a welcoming rule and an encompassing rule and not one which says that what it takes to be a member is to have had the right parents," said Mr Morrison.

Mr Morrison also warned against undue haste and said the Government was being a little disingenuous by shifting its rationale for holding the referendum.

"If it's just a loophole just a technicality then what's the rush? But if it's about the fundamental question of how one acquires citizenship at birth, that's a very fundamental question and it deserves a longer and more sustained debate. In either case, whichever way you want to see it, what's the rush?" Mr Morrison asked.

He urged the Government to concentrate on introducing a workable, fair immigration system based on best international examples.

"Managing the asylum system is something the Irish people should expect from their Government. Doing it well is something the Irish people should expect from their Government. Changing the Constitution as if a piece of paper will fix that problem is selling people something that will not work," he said.

Immigrant Council chairperson Sister Stanislaus Kennedy also called for a No vote and compared the creation of a new class of citizen to the past treatment of illegitimate children in Ireland.

"The children born to non-nationals won't even be second-class citizens. They won't be citizens at all," she said, adding that the referendum would place children under a shadow of legal uncertainty.