Don’t hand your rights over to Government

THE point that all sides seem to be missing is this: are we prepared to allow the Government to decide at the stroke of a pen whom it will ban from being an Irish citizen?

At present any person who can prove that at least one grandparent was born in Ireland has the right to claim Irish citizenship but already we hear rumblings that perhaps these people in the Irish diaspora should be excluded.

Remember this is only a legislative right and not a constitutional one. The only people protected by constitutional right are those born on the island of Ireland and this only since 1999; all others can have their rights changed or removed completely by the passing of a law by the Oireachtas.