Citizenship vote on course for resounding 'yes'

Proposed changes to our citizenship laws are expected to be ratified tonight in a referendum to tighten the State’s immigration regulations.

More than half of the country’s 34 electoral districts have recorded between 70 and 80% of the poll in favour of the constitutional change.

If passed, parents of Irish-born children will no longer have the right to claim citizenship in the country.

Turnout for the poll was expected to be around the 60% mark, with many voters taking the chance to exercise their franchise in the local and European elections as well.

This compares with a low of 35% in the first referendum on the Nice Treaty in June 2001.

The Government said the result indicated their decision to call for the constitutional change.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell said: “We brought it to the people on a day when they would be turning out in large numbers and we said at the beginning of this government that we would be bringing constitutional change.”

Mr McDowell claimed the change was necessary to close a loophole in the country’s citizenship laws, and to prevent abuse of the system by bringing it into line with the rest of the European Union.

The referendum followed an European Court ruling last month that the parents of children born in Northern Ireland could claim citizenship.

The European Court of Justice found Man Levette Chan’s daughter Catherine, who was born in Belfast in 2000, had the right to reside in the UK on the basis of being Irish and hence an EU, citizen.

It also decided that Catherine’s mother, a Chinese national who would otherwise not be entitled to reside in the UK, may invoke a right of residence from that of her daughter.

Mr McDowell added that the Government would now push ahead with amendments to citizenship laws.

“If it had been marginal there would have been fierce arguments about the judgment of the Irish people on the matter,” he said.

“The Government now has a mandate to proceed with a citizenship law and a proper immigration bill which will avoid difficulties of a constitutional nature.”

Labour Party spokesman for justice, Joe Costello claimed Mr McDowell had used scare-mongering tactics to win support for the referendum.

“He changed his statistics and his arguments right through the referendum, and he never gave any opportunity for a proper debate or discussion or consultation on the issue,” he said.

Mr Costello expressed concern that the 1998 Good Friday Agreement could be affected by the vote both in the short term and the long term.

He said: “Already Ian Paisley and a number of the DUP leaders have expressed their view that this now is the first time that the Good Friday Agreement has been changed unilaterally.

“This is a change of one of the basic tenets of the Good Friday Agreement and there’s no sense in pretending otherwise. I’ve no doubt this will be played for all it’s worth.”