Migration and Citizenship: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-30
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Paul Murphy (PBP), Dublin South-West

Let us be honest about what is happening here with the new proposed citizenship Bill. This is the latest episode of Jim O'Callaghan trying to clamber his way to the top of Fianna Fáil on the backs of vulnerable people. In this case, it is the people who make our health services work, who are part of our communities and who contribute to our society. Jim O’Callaghan is making himself out to be the hard man on immigration so that he can become leader of Fianna Fáil. It is a solution to a problem that simply does not exist and one that will make real problems worse for people. It will make the health crisis worse and potentially make the housing crisis worse. It certainly will not address the cost-of-living crisis. It is another one of these episodes of performative cruelty that will not make life better for anybody in this country. Instead, it will just make life harder for people who are working and living here, doing essential work, paying taxes and contributing to our society. It is a policy that the far right could have written. It is pandering to racism, the far right and fascism and Government members should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for it.
Many of the arguments put out there are simply falsehoods through and through. It is not true that this would bring us into line with other EU countries. No other EU country has all three of the bars to citizenship in this proposed Bill, namely, the salary bar, the benefits bar and the debt bar. Twenty-one of 27 EU countries do not have any salary bar for citizenship, recognising that many migrants do low-paid but essential work such as caring for older people, children and people with disabilities. Extending the residency requirement to eight years before people can even apply for citizenship is out of line with other countries. France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands allow people to apply after five years. In Canada, Australia and the US, where thousands of Irish people go every year, people can apply after three to five years. This highlights the hypocrisy. It is why it is correct to say that what is proposed is racist. The Government is happy to see people emigrate and happy to see the back of as many young people as possible, but when it comes to people coming here a different standard is applied. That is racism and xenophobia, pure and simple. It is also not what people want. If we look at opinion polls, nobody is asking for this. People want to see integration and support for people.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-30