Government accused of ‘moving the goalposts’ on citizenship residency rules

Opposition TDs called for transitional arrangements to protect people nearing five years of reckonable residency from the proposed changes

Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan received Cabinet approval in recent weeks to increase the period of reckonable residency required from five years to eight years. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

The Government has been accused of “performative cruelty” by “moving the goalposts” on citizenship residency requirements to “appease a racist sentiment”.

Labour TD Eoghan Kenny told immigration minister Colm Brophy that the Government “cannot out far right the far right”, saying it should “be ashamed”.

As the Dáil debated the proposed citizenship changes, politicians from Government and opposition parties called for a “transitional” period for those approaching five years of reckonable residency before the rules change.

Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan received Cabinet approval in recent weeks to increase the period of reckonable residency required from five years to eight years.

He indicated that even those who have been in Ireland for “four years and 10 months” will be impacted by the changes.

However, speaking in New York last week, Taoiseach Micheál Martin suggested there may be leniency for citizenship applications that are already making their way through the system ahead of a change to residency requirements.

Calls for transitional arrangements

During a debate on migration and citizenship, TDs from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats and People Before Profit all called for transitional arrangements to be put in place so that aspiring citizens already living in Ireland for close to five years would not have to wait another three years to become eligible for citizenship.

Labour TD Conor Sheehan said the proposals were “nothing more than performative cruelty”.

“The people who we are talking about are in the most highly skilled,” he said.

“Many of them are doctors, they're other healthcare workers, they're engineers, and you are going to leave many of them now in a sort of a grey area in immigration uncertainty for longer than they need to be in that situation.” Mr Sheehan said at a “bare minimum” there needs to be a “transitional arrangement” for people who are already living here.

Eoghan Kenny, Labour TD for Cork North-Central, accused the Government of “scapegoating” aspiring citizens to “appease a racist sentiment”.

“For this Government to use citizenship in this way to appease the anti-immigrant sentiment that is present in Ireland is utterly disgraceful, and you should be absolutely ashamed of what you are doing,” he told the Dáil.

“Please hear me when I say this, Minister. You cannot out far right the far right. You will not win. It never works. The far right is not reasonable.”

Opposition criticism

Sinn Féin TD Sinead Gibney told the Dáil that the Government is “moving the goalposts” for people who are close to five years of residency for citizenship.

“People who have had expectations around when they were going to have citizenship have had their lives upturned by this decision,” she said.

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy, meanwhile, described the proposals as the “latest episode of Jim O'Callaghan trying to clamber his way to the top of Fianna Fáil on the backs of vulnerable people”.

During his final remarks, Mr Brophy did not address concerns about transitional protection for those nearing five years of residency but denied the accusation of “performative cruelty”.