British back government defence of referendum

THE Government last night made its strongest justification to date of the referendum on citizenship with a robust three-pronged defence which included the full backing of the British Government.

In an unprecedented move, the Irish and British governments issued a ‘Joint Interpretative Declaration’ declaring that the proposed change to the Constitution is not a breach of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA).

The legal interpretation stated that it was never the intention of the two governments in endorsing the Agreement that it would extend citizenship rights to children whose parents did not have “sufficient connection with the island of Ireland.”