The Irish Government must help legislate for the rights of their citizens living in the North.
Last week’s meeting of the Joint-Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality heard stark reminder after stark reminder, of the failure by government to effectively and tangibly legislate for the rights and entitlements of those of us who are Irish citizens resident in the Six Counties.
The eminent figures from within academia, the legal profession and human rights sectors who presented to our Committee, all pointed to the very obvious and all too real “crisis” for rights and equality as a result of this failure to legislate. We will publish a report of the committee’s view on this issue in the coming period.
That crisis is only exacerbated and brought into sharper focus as a result of the calamitous fallout of Brexit.
The fears expressed by our committee contributors and all too acutely felt by the broader community here in the north, found unprecedented expression at last Saturday’s “Future Ireland” conference in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall.
Speaker after speaker at the historic Waterfront gathering outlined the rights deficit which exists here as a result of both governments failure to fully realise and implement the Good Friday Agreement.
We all know at this stage that the GFA extends Irish citizenship, as of birth right, to everyone born here – but in practice, in the reality of day to day life, beyond the modest, albeit important, ability to hold an Irish passport (when Post Offices aren’t running out of application forms that is!) what rights do we actually have?
An Taoiseach agus An Tánaiste have both steadfastly committed to “protecting” our rights as Irish citizens yet time after time in the Seanad, I have asked them to outline to me what our rights as citizens actually are.
Thus far they’ve been unable to clarify.
Further assurances given to the Seanad and Dáil that our rights as EU citizens will be upheld by Guy Verhofstaft of the EU Parliament also appear to have been built on legislatively shaky ground.
The opaque approach by Government is no longer tenable nor is it acceptable to the ever growing number of Irish citizens in the North who are asserting their citizenship, thus demanding equality of treatment and the associated protections afforded to our fellow Irish/EU citizens in the South.
I have proposed that the Justice Committee meet in joint-session with the Oireachtas Committee on ‘the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement’ to hear further evidence of these justified concerns and extend a further platform to those voices pleading with government to act and act now.
At a time when the British Home Office are dragging citizens in the North who assert their GFA rights as Irish citizens through the courts and imposes upon them (and by extension every last one of us) an automatic and often unwanted British citizenship then it is time we all defended the GFA, defended our rights and defended our futures.
The Irish government must lead in this regard. They must ensure we are not left behind.
So, what exactly are our rights as Irish citizens?
Until they are legislated for will we even know?
Until they are legislated for, do we even have any?
Those are the questions you should ask yourself, but more importantly, ask the Irish Government and the EU.
Seanad Scéal 