The protests are happening already, along with the tales of woe choreographed by the media, and the declamatory statements from the NGOs. But the proposal to move requirements away from the current ridiculous situation where, relatively speaking, we are handing citizenship out like smarties, is long overdue.
Citizenship brings rights and privileges. It puts newcomers to the country on the same level as those whose people have lived here for generations – even for centuries and millennia. It makes sense that it therefore should be difficult to obtain, and that there should be significant hurdles to surmount. But that hasn’t been the case in Ireland. As we will see, there are cases before the courts, and attracting major public attention, where people living here for years and granted citizenship still require an interpreter when being charged with serious crimes.
It is absurdly easily to obtain citizenship in this country, especially in comparison to other European jurisdictions – such as Germany which requires financial self-sufficiency, a command of German and a citizenship test; or Austria which has a 10 year residency requirement and won’t allow dual citizenship. The only real requirement in Ireland is residency – there is no language requirement or culture testing. Its a privilege given away too easily.
Little wonder that people thinking of citizenship acquisition come here in such large numbers. And in contrast to the EU average, Ireland is seriously out of kilter in relation to how many citizenships we award each year – in ceremonies uncritically reported and wrapped up and presented only as a good news story.
Since 2011, this small country has granted some 235,000 people citizenship – with more than 25,000 citizenships granted in 2025 alone. To understand the sheer scale of that increase, in the entire decade between 2001 and 2010, before the citizenship ceremonies began, just 27,283 people were granted citizenship.
In other words, last year we gave out almost as many citizenship awards in just twelve months as we did in the entire decade from 2001 and 2010. That’s just bonkers. But it was also a decision deliberately made by successive governments. These things don’t happen by accident. Don’t forget that even as migration and asylum numbers here were beginning their spiral, former Justice Minister, Helen McEntee announced, in 2021, an amnesty for undocumented migrants which attracted more than 8,000 applications.
Now, said governments might point to the EU and the trend across the 27 member bloc, where immigration, asylum and citizenship have all become hot button issues. But data released by Eurostat shows that Ireland, as ever, is ridiculously generous to the point of being an open border country.
In 2024, for example, Ireland granted 4.5 new citizenships per 1,000 population. The EU per capita average was 2.4. As I said above, we are way out of kilter – almost twice that of the EU average.
The numbers here are so large, in fact, that they distort public understanding of our demographics: as Matt Treacy was first to point out, while the CSO reports that 17% of the persons living here are non-Irish citizens, in fact at least 23% are actually persons who are foreign born.
But comparisons with similar size countries show how ludicrous our situation really is. Denmark, with a population of 6.7 million, awarded just 6,255 citizenships in 2024: a per capita approval of just 1.04. Ireland awarded 24,059 persons with citizenship. So the Irish state is 4 times more generous in granting citizenships than the Danes, despite our housing crisis, the pressure on healthcare etc etc. Why? None of it makes sense.
Slovakia, Poland, and even France have even lower per capita awards of citizenship. Even Germany, where immigration hostilities have led to the rapid rise of the AfD, give out less citizenship awards per capita than Ireland according to the Eurostat data.
The NGOs out bewailing the new proposal to moderately tighten up the rules are ignoring the facts of the matter. “It’s the latest cruel policy to make Ireland as cruel as possible” towards migrants, was one ridiculous comment from the plethora of NGOs in this crowded field, and you’ll be hearing plenty more of that from the Irish media who are always and ever sympathetic to every pushback against our lax and absurdly reckless immigration policies.
But I’d warrant public opinion is largely onside with tightening up the system: an online Journal poll, while not a scientific result, found that 84% thought a language test as a citizenship requirement is a good idea.
It’s also worth noting that issues as important as the citizenship application system and the need for change to same, come to the fore when journalists do their job, and shine a light on some of the egregious examples which show the current arrangement is often not working for the benefit of the Irish people.
Ben Scallan of this parish put it to Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, and his minister of state Colm Brophy, three months ago that we needed to toughen up the citizenship application system, and mostly got the usual waffle about balance and about how lucky we were that people are coming here at all and making “incredible contributions”.
But Ben’s video attracted huge attention. As did his follow-up video comment and the other Gript discussions around the folly of allowing such a lax citizenship system that Riad Bouchakker, the man who viciously stabbed three small children at a school in Parnell Square, lived here for more than 20 years, had received citizenship after claiming asylum, but still needed an Arabic interpreter in the court when he was being tried for attempted murder.
Holding bad policy – and weak governments – to account matters. It starts the discussions that force badly needed change. It’s just one of the reasons why Independent journalism is so important.
The NGOs can wail all they want about Ireland being a “cruel” country. No-one except their political allies is listening anymore. Irish citizenship is a privilege. It should no longer be handed out like smarties at a kid’s party.