If ever you were in any doubt that Irish citizenship has been completely devalued and watered down to a comical degree, then look no further than this very illuminating and absurd story from Tara King of Longford Live which was published over the weekend:
The article goes on to explain how he pleaded guilty to deceiving an insurance company into accepting a fraudulent certificate in order to receive a significantly reduced insurance quote. So, essentially he committed insurance fraud.
And yet him pleading guilty to this offence, his sentencing was delayed so that he could receive his naturalised Irish citizenship, if you can believe it. As reported by Longford Live:
And sure enough, the Judge granted the request and allowed his sentencing to be postponed until next February, by which point he will be an Irish citizen, and as Irish as you and I in the eyes of the State.
So we’re giving citizenship to a literal fraud who needs a Portuguese interpreter in court. Now that definitely sounds like someone who will enhance our society alright. I’m sure he’ll make a tremendous contribution to the fabric of Irish life.
Sure, didn’t Irish emigrants go all over the world and commit insurance fraud? The health service would fall over tomorrow if we didn’t give Irish citizenship to foreign scammers with limited English.
This case actually beggars belief.
You know, looking at the big picture, the Government is obviously making this big song and dance about tightening up citizenship rules, which is a prudent move. But it’s still not clear that they fully grasp the issue, given that Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan couldn’t even bring himself to say that Parnell Square child stabber Riad Bouchaker shouldn’t have gotten Irish citizenship.
This is the same Riad Bouchaker who was a lifelong dole merchant who was on social welfare, hated Ireland, said this country was “shit”, and could barely speak English after living here for 20 years. We gave him Irish citizenship, and when we refused to give him more dole money, he flew into a psychotic rage and started randomly stabbing pre-pubescent Irish children outside a school. And yet apparently the Justice Minister can’t say that this individual shouldn’t have been given citizenship in the first place, or that he should lose it now with the benefit of hindsight.
Is there a more clearcut case than this? It would actually be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.
The thing is, immigrants are people, just like everyone else. If ever you get a large group of people in one area from any nationality or walk of life, you will get a bellcurve. Some people are great, some people are evil, and most people are just somewhere in between.
There are immigrants who are living saints, who would put me to shame in terms of their contribution to their community. Honest, charitable, hard-working people who would give you the shirt off their back and put themselves in harms way to protect a vulnerable person in need. They’re people who are grateful to Ireland and respect the heritage of their new home. Those immigrants do exist.
But you know who else exists? Riad Bouchaker. Frauds. Cheaters. Scammers. Thieves. Bad people who want to do bad things and take advantage of us. And currently, our system does not have any quality control to weed those people out. We don’t separate the wheat from the chaff.
Pretty much everyone who applies for Irish citizenship ends up getting it. As reported on Gript this week:
On a similar note, as reported by my esteemed colleague Jason Osborne:
So to be clear, that means over 97% of applicants for Irish citizenship were not rejected.
You’d want to know what you’d have to do to be in that 3% who don’t get it. Apparently you’d want to be Saddam Hussein or something, and even then knowing this country he could probably just lay low for a while and launder his image a bit for a few years before coming back and trying again when the coast is clear. Maybe get involved with his local Tidy Towns or something and then he’ll be right as rain.
And bear in mind: we do not need to give citizenship to anyone. This is entirely a choice of the State, and they consistently choose wrong.
Ultimately, this is an area that needs to be absolutely overhauled as a matter of urgency, before our precious citizenship is diluted and devalued any more than it already has been.