Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland

Insertion of new Article 9.2:

1º Notwithstanding any other provision of this Constitution, a person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, who does not have, at the time of the birth of that person, at least one parent who is an Irish citizen or entitled to be an Irish citizen is not entitled to Irish citizenship or nationality, unless provided for by law.

2º This section shall not apply to persons born before the date of the enactment of this section

Previous Article 9.2 renumbered as Article 9.3.

Prior to 1999 the right to citizenship by reason of birth in Ireland existed in ordinary legislation. The only people who had a constitutional right to citizenship were those who were citizens of the Irish Free State when the constitution came into force.[4] For those born after 1937 the Constitution stated that the "future acquisition and loss of Irish nationality and citizenship shall be determined in accordance with law".[5] This changed in 1999 when as part of the Nineteenth Amendment the following clause was inserted into Article 2 of the Constitution:

It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish Nation. That is also the entitlement of all persons otherwise qualified in accordance with law to be citizens of Ireland.

This provision was intended to ensure that people from Northern Ireland would not be deprived of Irish citizenship, but also created a constitutional right to citizenship by birth.[4] Though immigration concerns did not feature much as an issue in the referendum campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment, it was given as an argument against in the Referendum Commission's leaflet:

"The new Article 2 will give a constitutional right of citizenship to anyone born in Ireland. This will make it very difficult to change the laws on citizenship and it may prevent the enactment of necessary laws to regulate immigration."

In the following years this become the subject of much controversy with allegations that foreign nationals were engaging in "birth tourism" by presenting themselves at hospitals in the Republic or in Northern Ireland in the late stages of pregnancy to secure citizenship for their children. Although the true number of births attributable to birth tourism was greatly disputed during the referendum campaign, one prominent instance was that of Man Chen who travelled to Northern Ireland in 2000 so that her child would be an Irish citizen.[6] Chen's argument that she had the right to remain in the United Kingdom with her EU national child was before the European Court of Justice at the time of the referendum campaign.

If restricting the right to citizenship by birth was becoming politically popular it was not legally possible to do so in the light of the above cited provision without amending the Constitution. The Twenty-seventh Amendment did not alter the text of Article 2 but instead inserted a proviso which limited the constitutional right to citizenship by birth to individuals with at least one Irish-citizen parent.[7]

The statutory right to citizenship by birth to the children of foreign nationals was not affected by the amendment but was restricted by the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004 which came into force on 1 January 2005.[8]

The Twenty-seventh amendment was introduced by the Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrats coalition government of Bertie Ahern. It was also supported by Fine Gael (the largest opposition party) but they refused to campaign due to what they complained was insufficient consultation before the poll. The amendment was opposed by the Labour Party,[9] the Green Party,[9] Sinn Féin,[9] and the Socialist Party, as well as the Irish Human Rights Commission, a statutory body, and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, a civil society non-profit organisation.[9] It was also opposed by Northern Ireland's SDLP, as Irish citizenship is an option for people born there.

The government presented the amendment as a common sense proposal that would close a constitutional loop-hole and allow Irish law to be brought into line with the rest of Europe.[10] In 2004, no other nation of the European Union granted citizenship by birth in the same manner as Ireland. However, citizenship by birth still exists in some non-European nations such as Canada and the United States.

Some criticisms of the amendment related merely to the manner in which it was proposed. Some argued that the amendment had been rushed through without proper debate and consultation. Because the constitutional right to citizenship had been introduced as part of the Good Friday Agreement it was argued that there should have been consultation with Northern Ireland political parties. In the lead-up to the referendum the Irish and British governments issued a joint statement saying that they did not regard the proposed constitutional change as affecting the British-Irish Agreement[11] (this being the inter-governmental component of the Good Friday Agreement). The Democratic Unionist Party cited the amendment as evidence that the Agreement could be changed.[12]

The referendum on the amendment was held on the same day as both European and local elections and so some argued that the Government was attempting to exploit popular prejudices to boost its election prospects. It was also argued that the Government had not presented sufficient evidence to show the amendment was necessary and that the numbers exploiting the constitutional "loop-hole" were in fact statistically small.

In the referendum, the amendment was ultimately approved, by a large majority of almost 80% in favour.

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland referendum[13]

Choice	Votes	%
Yes	1,427,520	79.17
No	375,695	20.83
Valid votes	1,803,215	98.89
Invalid or blank votes	20,219	1.11
Total votes	1,823,434	100.00
Registered voters and turnout	3,041,688	59.95

Although most Irish referendums count votes per Dáil constituency, this one was organised by city/county council area, the basis for the local elections being held simultaneously. Voters received different-coloured ballot papers for the referendum, city/county council election, and European Parliament election; all went into the same ballot box and were separated by colour once the boxes arrived at the count centre for the city/county.[14] Not all voters received all ballots as the franchises differ.

The amendment was signed into law on 24 June 2004, after the referendum result had been certified by the High Court. On 29 September the government published a bill to amend nationality law within the scope of the revised constitutional parameters.[15][16] This bill was signed into law on 15 December 2004 as the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004.[17]

In March 2017 Solidarity introduced the Irish Nationality and Citizenship (Restoration of Birthright Citizenship) Bill 2017 to the Dáil. If passed this Bill would reverse the effect of the 2004 Act.

The amendment was discussed in October 2018 amid news reports that a nine-year-old boy born and raised in Ireland was facing deportation to China.[18] Charles Flanagan, the Minister for Justice and Equality, said he was "concerned by the humanitarian issues" but the Fine Gael-led government had no plans to revisit the amendment.[18]

• Irish nationality law
• Articles 2 and 3

• "Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Act 2004".
• "Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004, including Oireachtas debates".
• "Full text of the Constitution of Ireland".