The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has expressed concern about “the unacceptable haste” of Government plans to amend legislation allowing for the revocation of naturalised Irish citizenship.

It has detailed its concerns in a letter to the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee.

The commission says that it understands that the Court, Civil Law, Criminal Law and Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024 will amend the relevant provisions of Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 dealing with the revocation of citizenship.

The relevant proposed amendments were published on Tuesday (9 July) for insertion at committee stage.

‘Appropriate scrutiny’

“We believe it is the Government’s intention to pass the new law on revocation of naturalised citizenship by the end of next week,” IHREC stated.

“This places a severe limit on the time available for appropriate pre-legislative scrutiny of the proposed amending legislation to ensure that constitutionally compliant safeguards are built into it.” the human-rights body added.

Having reviewed the bill’s draft provisions, the commission has concerns that they do not provide the safeguards needed in cases where a person is facing the severe consequences described by the Supreme Court in Damache v Minister for Justice.

In the Damache ruling of February 2021, Ms Justice Dunne found that “high standards of natural justice” must apply to the revocation of certificates of naturalisation.

‘Lack of clarity’

IHREC is concerned about an “ongoing lack of clarity” on the appropriate threshold for the minister to initiate a revocation process, and fears that the legislation could facilitate the use of revocation in circumstances where it is not warranted.

It also has concerns about “unnecessarily short and unreasonable timeframes” for a naturalised citizen facing revocation of citizenship to engage in the process.

Overall, the commission says that the bill gives the minister “wide scope to determine how the revocation mechanism will function in practice”.

It is calling on the minister to remove from the bill the provisions that provide for the amendment of section 19 of the 1956 act, to allow “the usual appropriate time” for their pre-legislative scrutiny.