At a Fianna Fáil “think in” this week, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan announced proposals to change drastically the laws around immigration and citizenship, by his own account the biggest alteration in “a generation”.

These changes would make the immigration system increasingly punitive in ways that have no clear benefit and seem driven more by a response to international anti-immigration agitation than by clear policymaking.

“I want to see more citizens, but I’m trying to restrain the level of growth in that number,” he said.

My wife is one of those who will be affected: she is not an Irish citizen, but has spent years living and paying taxes in the State. We are moving back to Ireland, having spent some years abroad. So the increase in the number of years of required residency for spouses to become citizens from three to five would affect us personally.

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This is far from the most drastic change in the law, however, with the requirement for citizenship outside of marriage rising from five to eight years, applied retrospectively. This would make Irish citizenship under Micheál Martin harder to obtain than United States citizenship under Donald Trump.

This is coming from the same governing parties here that only closed the programme allowing wealthy individuals with no connection to Ireland to purchase residency while spending one day a year in the State in 2023.

Citizenship is........

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