ABSTRACT
The government was determined to address the manner in which such Irish citizenship rules were perceived to be compromising the asylum and immigration systems by the assertion, on a significant scale since the late 1990s, of dependent rights of residence by non-national parents of Irish-born children. This chapter examines the legal and political dynamics involved in this change and concludes that the case for the constitutional referendum was flawed on substantive and procedural grounds. There are two central issues of concern in relation to new legislative regime established under the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 2004. The first relates to the lawful residence requirement which raises a number of discrete problems; the second concerns the broader policy context in which the legislation has been passed. There are several principal objections to the form of constitutional amendment that Ireland embarked upon. The first relates to the establishment of an unfortunate precedent about when and how the constitution ought to be changed.
