Irelands Taoiseach faces backlash over citizenship reform remarks at UN
Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheál Martin is facing criticism over comments he made about asylum seekers and citizenship reforms while attending the UN General Assembly in New York last week.
Martin suggested that immigrant workers already in Ireland may still qualify for citizenship under the existing five-year residency rule, despite incoming reforms that will extend the requirement to eight years. He also claimed that some asylum seekers had been granted citizenship after five years due to administrative delays, which he cited as a reason for the reform.
Teresa Buczkowska, head of the Immigrant Council of Ireland, said she was “appalled” by the remarks, stating that the Taoiseach “does not understand how the law is working.” She explained that reckonable residency only begins once an asylum seeker receives international protection status, meaning someone could wait a decade for a decision and then face another five years before applying for citizenship. “I was absolutely appalled to learn that the leader of our country does not understand how the law is working, and he is seeking to change that law,” Buczkowska said .
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy accused Martin of “dog whistling to justify the government’s citizenship proposal,” calling the reforms a “solution to a non-existent problem” and a distraction from government failures .
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