British Nationality (Irish Citizens) Bill

Lord Hay of Ballyore Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 17th May 2024 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Lord Hay of Ballyore]

That the Bill be now read a second time.

[Lord Hay of Ballyore (DUP)]

My Lords, I am delighted to move this Bill in your Lordships’ House.

The Bill has a long and frustrating past. My colleague the Member for East Londonderry, Mr Campbell, a Member of the other House since 2001, introduced a Private Member’s Bill along similar lines as far back as 2005, which unfortunately ran out of time. Over the years, he has continually argued, through debates with and Questions to various Ministers, for long-standing residents of Northern Ireland born in the Republic of Ireland after 1948 to be recognised as citizens of this United Kingdom without the need to undertake a lengthy and costly process of applying to the Home Office for British citizenship.

The historical background to this issue is vital. We all know the history of Ireland: before 1922 Ireland was part of this United Kingdom, and between 1922 and 1949 the Irish Free State had dominion status and people born there were British subjects. The Republic of Ireland passed its own citizenship law in 1935. However, until 1948 people born anywhere in Ireland continued to be regarded as British subjects. Under the British Nationality Act 1948, which came into force on 1 January 1949, people born in the Republic of Ireland ceased to be British subjects.

Members will recognise that the problem in all this is that, when we listen to people in the media and elsewhere speak about the Belfast agreement, we often hear them cite parity of esteem—two communities working together and recognising themselves as British, Irish or other. Unfortunately, people born in the Republic of Ireland after 1948 cannot designate themselves as British in Northern Ireland. Surely this goes against the Belfast agreement, which recognises the birthright of all people born in Northern Ireland to identify themselves and be accepted as British, Irish or both, as they so choose.

Through the Belfast agreement, efforts were made to address issues of identity. While we reflect on the Belfast agreement, it was accepted that Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom was constitutionally settled. Even those with an Irish identity were afforded the opportunity to obtain Irish citizenship. The approach taken by the Irish Government offered people in Northern Ireland the opportunity to obtain Irish citizenship; some enjoy dual citizenship of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

Unfortunately, what was not settled at the time was in the other direction. Perhaps this was an anomaly that was missed or overlooked when the Belfast and St Andrews agreements were being negotiated, but we have an opportunity with this Bill to right a great wrong. The House knows our history, our relationship with these isles, and how the two have intertwined. The Bill gives us the opportunity to provide the finished piece of that relationship jigsaw. For anyone who was born in the Republic of Ireland who has made their home in the United Kingdom, and who satisfies the residency test, they should be able to avail themselves of UK citizenship.

The Irish Government have a very simple process of applying for an Irish passport, the system for which was reviewed in 2011. If you were born on the island of Ireland, or if your partner, grandparents or great grandparents were, you are entitled to an Irish passport, at a cost of €80—not the £1,500 to be a British citizen. That is the difference. It is a simple process, and when you apply for an Irish passport you can trace the whole process. Online applications can be completed within 20 working days. According to the latest figures, Irish passport applications have gone up by more than 30% and British passport applications have gone down by well over 40%. That is the answer to the problem in all of this.

This is a very short, two-clause Bill. It seeks to amend the British Nationality Act 1981 to enable citizens of the Republic of Ireland who are resident in the UK to register as British subjects. The Bill would establish a separate, stand-alone route to British citizenship for people born after 1948 who have made Northern Ireland their home for a significant period. Qualifying residents will be able to be part of the United Kingdom, not just Northern Ireland. I welcome that, because British citizenship should reflect the whole of the United Kingdom—this is not just about Northern Ireland, as shown in the amendment that the Government added to the Bill in the other place. That amendment strengthens the Bill, as it is now widened out to the rest of this United Kingdom. I would hope that the Bill will create a more straightforward route to becoming a British citizen—and, of course, that a Life in the UK test would not be required.

I want to raise one issue around the fees. I know that the Government very much support the Bill, but it appears unjust to require someone born in the Republic of Ireland who has lived in Northern Ireland for virtually their entire life to pay a fee of £1,500 to become a British citizen. It would help the House if the Minister could confirm what criteria would be used in setting the level of application fees under the new scheme. Over the years, what has put off a lot of people—even those who qualify for British citizenship—is that they still have to pay £1,500, and when they pay it and are accepted as a British citizen, there is no guarantee that they will be given a British passport. It allows you to apply for a British passport only after you have British citizenship, at a huge cost of £1,500. Can you imagine two people in a household paying that? That is £1,500 each, and at the moment for a child it is £1,000 to apply for British citizenship. When we come out the other end with this Bill, I hope there will be a simplified fee, with a simplified process. That is important. The whole process of applying for British citizenship has put a lot of people off. I would like to think that, under the new system, we can have a simplified process that works for everybody.

The Bill unites people from all backgrounds and traditions in Northern Ireland, whether they describe their nationality as British, Irish or other. This is a non-controversial issue. Even the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee has looked at this issue on several occasions and made a number of recommendations to the Government, who then were not listening. There has been unity of purpose on the part of members of the committee from Northern Ireland on this whole issue; there has not been a dissenting voice. The Bill in its current form provides a wonderful opportunity for us as a nation to recognise our nearest neighbours and bring them closer. There have been many false dawns over the last 40 years on this. I hope and trust that today is an important moment to address this imbalance. I beg to move.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Hay of Ballyore (DUP)]

My Lords, I thank Members for their contributions this afternoon, especially for their cross-party support for the Bill. I also congratulate my colleague the Member for Belfast East, Gavin Robinson. After nine years, he successfully secured the opportunity for a Private Member’s Bill on this issue and steered it through the other House.

Sometimes it is not mentioned, but I want to place on record my appreciation to the staff of this House, particularly the Library and the Minister’s officials, who have been kind and very engaging on this Bill. Sometimes, we forget the staff in this House who do a tremendous job.

I come back to the cost of all of this. I listened to what the Minister has said on the cost and when the Bill might commence when it comes out the other end. I emphasise to the Government that they should look seriously at the cost of fees in all of this. It should not still mean that it is £1,500 to apply for British citizenship. It would be totally wrong and a waste of time for this particular Bill. I believe the Government are coming at this Bill with a good spirit, and that is important.

The other issue is when all this might start. I got a wee bit worried when the Minister said that the Home Office is working out the issues around it. The Home Office has a lot of issues, and I know this Government have a lot of issues, but once again I emphasise to the Minister and the Government not to hold this particular Bill up—or this particular piece of law when it eventually hits the ground. I would not want it to be another six or nine months or a year until somebody in the Home Office works out the procedures around all of this.

I would hope, at the end of it all, there will be a very simple process of applying for British citizenship, because that is what the Bill is all about. It is about simplifying the process and reducing the cost. It is important that we can achieve that sooner rather than later. Once again, I thank the whole House, particularly for the cross-party support that the Bill has received.

Bill read a second time and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.

Hong Kong Military Veterans: Settlement

Lord Hay of Ballyore Excerpts

Wednesday 29th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

My noble friend makes a very good point. Yes, absolutely.

[Lord Hay of Ballyore (DUP)]

My Lords, I will raise an issue that I think was raised when I was at school too. Does the Home Office have any plans to address the long-standing issue that exists whereby UK residents, voters and taxpayers born in the Irish Republic who have lived for many years in Northern Ireland and made it their home do not have an automatic right to a British passport without going through a long and winding process, including paying a substantial fee of £1,300? This was first raised in the other House in 1985. The Government seem reluctant to deal with this issue.

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, obviously, this goes widely beyond the remit of the Question, so I am afraid that I am unable to answer the noble Lord, but I will make sure that he is written to.

Republic of Ireland: British Passports

Lord Hay of Ballyore Excerpts

Wednesday 26th October 2022 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Hay of Ballyore]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have, if any, to grant an automatic right to a British Passport to people born in the Republic of Ireland who have lived in Northern Ireland for 50 years or more.

[Lord Hay of Ballyore (DUP)]

My Lords, I welcome the Minister to the Dispatch Box and I wish him well in his new role. I am grateful to have the opportunity to hold this debate in your Lordships’ House. This is a very personal issue to me and to many out there who believe that this is a serious anomaly that needs to be addressed.

I will give a brief history of how we got here. When the Irish Republic—previously known as the Irish Free State—left the Commonwealth in 1949, the British Government at the time allowed those who had been born in the Republic and had moved to Northern Ireland or elsewhere in the United Kingdom prior to that date to retain their British citizenship. That all changed after 1949: for people born in the Republic of Ireland after 1949, that right was taken away from them. Since 1949, many individuals who have lived here in the United Kingdom for many years, voted in UK elections and paid their taxes have found themselves disadvantaged by a bureaucratic and lengthy process.

Indeed, instead of an application fee of £100, there is a large fee to apply for citizenship of around £1,300. These costs put many people off. There is also a requirement for Irish citizens who have been resident here in the UK for many years then to pass a Life in the UK Test. This is a discriminatory process for those who have been living and working in Northern Ireland, in the United Kingdom, for years, who find when they go to apply for British citizenship that they have many hurdles to clear that simply do not exist for others. They look around and see that many with no prior connection to the United Kingdom or Ireland find the process of applying for a British passport much quicker and far less hassle. Those Irish-born citizens who have lived, worked and voted in Northern Ireland and paid their taxes for many years—for many decades in some cases—have every right to British citizenship, to be an equal part of this United Kingdom and to hold a British passport. I question the very logic of this process. It impacts many thousands of people, and I question the hurdles that have been introduced.

One point worth noting is that last February, the Court of Appeal found that similar fees of £1,000 for children to register as British citizens were unlawful and must be reconsidered by the Home Office. The current application process can be an increasingly long and frustrating one for many. It is especially challenging for those from lower-income backgrounds.

The process of British citizenship applications can take six months, but usually it takes much longer. It has several steps and can be a major hurdle to people who genuinely want to apply for British citizenship. As part of the process, applicants are required to pay £350 simply for the privilege of a decisions report, where somebody will tell them whether they can apply and whether they qualify for British citizenship. That will cost £350, whether it is a “yes” or a “no” answer. In many instances, another frustration exists whereby even if registered as a British citizen and successful, this does not automatically entitle an individual to a British passport; it entitles them only to apply for a British passport.

This is an insensitive situation for those who have paid taxes and national insurance contributions here for many years. Present census figures indicate that it affects approximately 40,000 people living in Northern Ireland, and this number is growing year on year. This is a huge number of people who cannot avail themselves of a British passport without navigating a long and winding process. It is quite clear that barriers exist in their route to citizenship.

Of course, this is against the backdrop of a process that has been simplified in respect of Irish passport applications for people living in Northern Ireland. The Irish Government reviewed the whole process of application in 2011 and came up with a simple way of applying for an Irish passport for those living on the island of Ireland. If you apply for an Irish passport, the application is around €80 in total. Anyone born or living in Northern Ireland, or anyone who has a parent or grandparent living on the island of Ireland, is automatically entitled to apply for Irish citizenship. They have thrown the net so wide. Applicants do not need to have been born on the island of Ireland if their father, mother or a grandparent was born there; they are entitled to an Irish passport and Irish citizenship. It is a simple and quick process. When you apply for an Irish passport, you can trace the whole process, and online applications are completed in approximately 20 working days. This is a sharp contrast to the long and costly process that some Irish-born people living in Northern Ireland face when applying for British citizenship.

There are ways to remove the financial and bureaucratic barriers in relation to this, if the will exists from government and the Home Office. There is a solution; a modest change in current practice could affect that group of 40,000 people. This is a sensitive matter that affects many and requires only a slight adjustment to be resolved. If an individual born in the Irish Republic after 1949 can prove that they have been living in Northern Ireland for between five and 10 years, have been working, voting and paying taxes and national insurance contributions, and are genuinely a part of that community, surely there ought to be a practical, sensible, streamlined way forward in this process.

I welcome the report published by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in the other place last year and concur with its recommendations that these fees and this cumbersome process should be abolished. That committee has unionist, Conservative, Labour, Alliance and SDLP members, so there is unanimity in trying to resolve this issue not only in this House— I hope—but in the other.

The great irony is that when we hear people in the media and Members of this House and the other House talk about the Belfast agreement, they often say “parity of esteem”: two communities working together and recognising whether someone is Irish, British or both. The extraordinary situation I have outlined today goes directly against the grain of the Belfast agreement. Let us not forget that the agreement is held up because it recognises the birthright of people living in Northern Ireland to identify themselves and be accepted as Irish, British or both. We are talking about people living in Northern Ireland for 30, 40 or 50 years, who were born five miles across the border in the Republic but have lived in Northern Ireland for virtually all their lives. To date, there has been a reluctance by government to act in relation to this. I welcome the opportunity to have this debate and trust that noble Lords will concur that this is an unfair process that could be remedied with minimal change.

A number of Members in the other place agree with the recommendations that the lengthy process required and the payment of associated fees should be waived in the applications of long-term residents of Northern Ireland who were born in the Republic of Ireland and wish to access their British identity by holding a British passport. Other representations have been made to the Home Office in respect of this issue, which goes back as far as 2004 or 2005, when it was raised in the House of Commons by my colleague Gregory Campbell. For whatever reason, the Government have refused to address it.

There should be real parity of esteem for people living in Northern Ireland who were born in the Republic. That is not the case. For many decades, the Government have failed to consider the history of the personal ties of thousands of people in this unique situation. This issue unites all backgrounds and traditions in Northern Ireland. That does not happen often, but on this issue, it is the case. I hope today’s debate will move us some way towards finally bringing a resolution.

Does the Minister agree that this issue must be addressed? Will he commit seriously to doing so? It directly affects a large number of taxpaying residents in our United Kingdom. It is so bad in Northern Ireland at the minute that the number of people applying for British passports has dropped by 30%, while the number applying for Irish passports has gone up by 27%.

Online Safety

Lord Hay of Ballyore Excerpts

Thursday 1st December 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hay of Ballyore (DUP)]

My Lords, I, too, congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, on securing this important and very timely debate.

Like others, I am very interested to hear the Minister’s full explanation for the quite dramatic change in the Government’s understanding of what is required to comply with the net-neutrality regulations which have taken place between 11 December last year and Monday this week. The Statement on Monday in another place causes me some concerns. If the Minister is saying that the law that the Government propose will clarify that it is legal to provide adult content filtering when it can be turned off as a matter of user choice, the legislation that he proposes does not protect our adult content filtering regime. Rather, to my mind, it places it in jeopardy.

I very much hope that the Minister can explain to the House that the words employed by the Minister in another place on Monday should not be taken literally and that she can confirm to us today that the proposed amendment will preserve our adult content filtering regime, including in relation to public wi-fi and internet access from mobile phones owned by under-18s.

The other matter I wanted to address is the rather strange disparity between the willingness of the Government to legislate fully for age-verification checks on pornographic websites through the Digital Economy Bill and their reluctance to legislate fully for adult content filters. Having conceded the point that child protection online is sufficiently important to justify legislation on age verification, even for sites based in other jurisdictions, it seems odd to resist placing adult content filters on an equally robust footing for ISPs based within our jurisdiction.

Mindful of this, I very much hope that, in bringing forward legislation, the Government will make it clear not just that adult content filters are legal but that all ISPs serving homes must provide default-on adult content filters. I am very troubled by the fact that the big four ISPs that sign up to the adult content filtering arrangement amount to only 88% of the market. That leaves a full 12% of the market, therein many children, beyond the reach of the filtering agreement.

In some ways it is easier to live with that kind of arrangement if one is operating on an entirely voluntary basis, but it becomes more difficult once attempts are made to regulate this in law because doing so inevitably has the effect of formalising, and thereby indirectly condoning, discrimination through the creation of two classes of children: on the one hand, those who are lucky enough to have parents who use one of the big four ISPs and are consequently more likely to benefit from adult content filters and, on the other hand, those whose parents do not use the big four and who are invariably left at greater risk of exposure to inappropriate adult content.

Mindful of this I strongly encourage the Government to apply themselves with the same kind of urgency and commitment to protecting children from adult content in the round—violence, drug use, gambling and pornography—through filtering, as they are in relation to pornography through age verification checks. In making this point I am aware of a potential overlap with what I said earlier. I think that I am right in saying that the purpose of the net neutrality regulations is to outlaw informal arrangements, by which I mean ones not expressly sanctioned by law. The idea, as I understand it, is to limit the extent to which states can lean on ISPs and others to block or restrict access to material, which the powers that be simply do not like for political, religious, or even unstated reasons. Mindful of this, the net neutrality ethic contends that any use of filters to manage internet traffic must be not only congruent with wider human rights legislation but mandatory under national law, not discretionary or permissive.

If I am correct this means that moving to a mandatory regime would not only address the concern about covering all ISPs but also take care of any problem relating to maintaining public wi-fi filters and filters on the phones of those under 18. The requirements in this regard would be protected because they would be mandatory. On that basis, we would have a win-win situation. First, we would maintain public wi-fi filters and filters on the phones of those below 18 years of age. Secondly, we would ensure that all households with children benefit from access to default-on filtering.

In conclusion, I hope that the Minister can confirm, first, that the forthcoming legislation really will protect our adult content filtering regimes, including in relation to public wi-fi and children’s phones and, secondly, that it will apply—as does the Online Safety Bill of the noble Baroness, Lady Howe—to all ISPs that service homes with children. I very much look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say, because we have a generation of children who are being stripped of their childhood by viewing graphic sexual images on both mobile phones and tablets.