Migration and Citizenship: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-30
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James Geoghegan (FG), Dublin Bay South

I thank the Minister of State for the opportunity to discuss migration and, of course, the Bill that is being proposed. In the first instance, I acknowledge his opening remarks and the value that he put on migration, which is a hallmark of his tenure as Minister of State in this Department. It is so important that people in power use every opportunity they get to talk up the value of migration.
In fairness to the universal theme that has been evident in this Chamber, so far at least - and I have listened to the entire debate - every person who has stood up has spoken about the value and importance of migration, in all parties and none. That is a measure of the strength of integration in this country. I do not think that should be divorced from our ability or capacity to make changes to our system in a firm way. We have made very significant changes to our international protection system. That has worked and, quite frankly, has proved to be fair. There is a recognition of the changes that have been made and that has not done any damage to the issues of integration.
Similarly, I have no objection to the issue of citizenship being examined or to changes being made 20 years after the last iteration, but as it relates to people who are playing by the rules - I am talking about people here on stamp 4 visas, many of them constituents of everybody in this Chamber - they want to play by the rules and they have played by the rules. As the Taoiseach indicated, at least in interviews with the media earlier, it needs to be examined in the context of the Bill that people who came here and have been granted visas knowing what the rules would be on their pathway to citizenship should be exempt from any final iteration of this Bill and should be covered by the existing regime. That would be proportionate and fair. These people recognise that you can change the rules. They are working hard and trying to get ahead. They recognise that countries can change rules, but they have played by the rules and support work.
It is ironic that within this Chamber, for the first time in a very long time, we have heard discussion about full employment and the economy from the Opposition, which never talks about those things. One of the big challenges we have in this country is that we do have full employment and we want to ensure we have the right skills here. I urge the Minister of State and the senior Minister in the Department to examine this issue of being proportionate and fair to people who have played by the rules. They should be covered by the existing regime and not by any new regime that will be introduced.

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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