Migration and Citizenship: Statements Dail Éireann — 2026-09-30 ============================================================ Colm Brophy (FG), Dublin South-West While I do not agree with what the Deputy said, per se , I do admire that she got here. I heard the breathlessness in her voice and it is important she got to make her contribution. I will begin my reply by saying that we had a debate today that covered migration and citizenship. The difficulty in doing that in one joint debate is that I felt there was quite a lot of conflating of various issues which, unfortunately, did not give any real clarity to people who would listen to this debate. I will not use my prepared remarks but will take a few minutes to reply to what Deputies said. I will start by re-emphasising that I believe the commitment of the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, and I has always been to look at reform around the area of how we handle migration in our country - inward migration, emigration and the whole process of migration - and ensuring we have a system that is fit for purpose. That is a system, particularly in the migration area, which is firm, fair and effective, a system that is rules based, a system that makes sure the public can have confidence in it and that people going through it can be dealt with in a fair manner. Through the implementation of the migration pact and the transposing of that into Irish law we have actually done that. I noted some of Sinn Féin's contributions today, which were pretty much the usual tropes thrown out and did not even acknowledge the fact that the migration pact has brought some of the singularly biggest changes. We have seen a drastic reduction in numbers, which was not acknowledged. We have seen times change from years to months to weeks. We have seen a process that is now working and is deemed by people going through it to enable them to have a very fair and effective system, and is one that is actually delivering for the State. It is really important that in looking at the argument, be it migration or be it citizenship, that we try to have a discussion. To be honest, I frankly find it insulting that when certain Deputies stand up, their contribution could be distilled down to, "Let me see how many times I can say performative cruelty", and they think that is a thought-out contribution. I do not feel that what anybody is doing in this House is trying to introduce a system that is based on performative cruelty. You may disagree with individual aspects of how the system works but throwing out insults, whether it is at the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, at the Government or at me, does not contribute to the debate. What is important to recognise is that there are real changes we can look at to ensure the system works, be it in migration or citizenship. I want to clearly move to citizenship as part of this discussion. What we are trying to do is propose a series or package of measures that would change how we look at how someone acquires citizenship. We have been clear from the start that it is a package of measures. We believe that package reflects a modern society. It reflects a lot of European norms. It reflects how people feel about the importance and the privilege that attaining Irish citizenship is. I look forward to the fact, and have done from day one, that package of measures will be looked at, analysed, gone through and debated during the pre-legislative scrutiny process and by the process of legislation going through the Oireachtas. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, and I have always made it quite clear we want that process because we want to have an effective package at the end of it that not only enables people, which I am absolutely committed to, to achieve Irish citizenship because they have come here and made their lives here, but also ensures that citizenship is a very genuine, deep citizenship that somebody has an opportunity to feel they have achieved through a whole range of experiences. That includes their life experience, their work experience, their knowledge of our country, their proficiency in our language and their ability to contribute. It is never just any simple matrix such as "How many years have I been here? I must have citizenship". I am someone who has presided over citizenship ceremonies as a Minister of State. As someone who has such a deep belief in Irish citizenship, I am afraid I do not subscribe to the notion that just because you come here, and we want you to come here and work and make a life here if that is what you want to do in whatever area, whether contributing to our public services or working at the heart of our tech, that is somehow or other selling an Irish citizenship or passport. It is not. It is the first stage of a process of someone coming to make his or her life in Ireland and as a result of that, having an opportunity, as that evolves, to have the privilege of citizenship, which is very important. The debate is important. It is important we try to listen to each other. It is important we try to take out the language that is just designed to vilify or knock someone whose viewpoint you do not agree with. I heard people whose political party I agree with virtually nothing on what it stands for, say things I totally agreed with. I heard people who I would be much closer to in a political party context say things I did not agree with. That is the thing about this debate. You must be willing to take the debate in the round and believe contributions can be made by everybody to this debate that will contribute to us having the thing we want. The thing I would like and believe we should all want at the end of this is a system of migration that works for people coming in, be it coming in to claim international protection or, crucially, coming in to contribute in so many ways to work for our country. We also want a system that works when it comes to citizenship and ensures that when somebody gets the privilege of Irish citizenship that it is a deep privilege, which we - them and the State - have collectively worked together to ensure the benefits they derive from that citizenship are the maximum for them and for the State. That is what we are hoping to achieve in the legislation we are bringing forward. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. 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