Irish Examiner view: Purchase scheme devalued citizenship

Ireland should have borne in mind previous tawdry schemes when the Immigrant Investor Programme was introduced

Allowing people to buy Irish citizenship devalues that citizenship and undermines Irish sovereignty abroad, because it suggests to the world at large that being Irish — or becoming Irish — is a matter of simply settling upon a fee. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Farewell then to the Immigrant Investor Programme, which is to close down this week.

For those unclear about this Government scheme, it is described as a pathway for non-European Economic Area (EEA) nationals to secure an immigration permission for Ireland on the basis of long-term investment in a range of options approved by the Government.

Minister for Justice Simon Harris claimed this week that the programme had been responsible for €1bn in investment in Ireland but added that it, like all Government programmes, was subject to review, and the Government had decided it had come to the end of its useful life.

For those with an eye to history, this programme has uncomfortable echoes of similar schemes in the past, schemes which often ended badly.

Under the old ‘passports for sale’ programme, for instance, it was shown in 1994 that Taoiseach Albert Reynolds’s pet food business had benefited from a IR£1 million investment by a Saudi family who were subsequently granted Irish citizenship.

Four years before that, more Saudis were granted citizenship on the basis of a promised IR£20m investment in Ireland.

Subsequent investigations revealed the Minister for Justice at the time, Ray Burke, personally authorised the naturalisation certificates at his home rather than having a senior official do so. The requirement that applicants should swear an oath of loyalty to the State was also waived in that case.

This kind of tawdry dealing should have been kept in mind when the Immigrant Investor Programme was introduced a decade ago. 

Allowing people to buy Irish citizenship devalues that citizenship and undermines Irish sovereignty abroad, because it suggests to the world at large that being Irish — or becoming Irish — is a matter of simply settling upon a fee.

The shadowy figures availing of furtive programmes like this are in sharp contrast with the citizenship ceremonies held in Killarney last December. Thousands of people from 130 countries became Irish citizens then, and were proud to do so in public.