Tom Griffin (London, The Green Ribbon): As the tenth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement approaches, there is growing evidence that the inclusive vision of 1998 is being undermined by the Government's more recent obsession with a narrower and more prescriptive identity politics.
Lord Goldsmith's citizenship review provides the latest example. His proposal to stop Irish citizens voting in the UK is sharply at odds with the logic of the agreement, which embraces "partnership, equality and mutual respect as the basis of relationships within Northern Ireland, between North and South, and between these islands."
Each of these three key relationships form part of a balanced institutional framework. Recognition of the East-West British-Irish relationship enabled unionists to agree to the North-South all-Ireland institutions favoured by nationalists. That concession in turn allowed the two communities to work together in Northern Ireland itself, on the basis of parity of esteem for their national identities:
[The participants] recognise the birthright of all the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves and be accepted as Irish or British, or both, as they may so choose, and accordingly confirm that their right to hold both British and Irish citizenship is accepted by both Governments and would not be affected by any future change in the status of Northern Ireland.
Aside from the impact on Northern Ireland, the East-West relationship has huge significance in itself, as Mick Fealty notes:
Irish citizens in Britain (that is excluding those born in Northern Ireland) are by some considerable way the largest group of those people who were born outside the UK. For instance, in 2005 (national statistics source here) there are about 70,000 more Republic of Ireland-born people (537,100) than Indian-born (467,600).
There are also some 112,000 British citizens in the Republic, who have the right to vote in Dáil, European and local elections.
Goldsmith's proposal would not only be a blow to this reciprocal East-West arrangement. It would also affect the all-Ireland relationship as Irish citizens from the South would be unable to vote in the North. Those excluded in this way would include the Stormont Education minister, Mayo-born Caitríona Ruane. Goldsmith himself is unclear on how southerners could be distinguished from northerners in practice:
Anyone who exercises their right under the Agreement to identify themselves as Irish and to take up Irish citizenship should not lose their right to vote in Westminster elections as a result of any change made to restrict voting rights to UK citizens. Hence it would be necessary to distinguish this group of Irish citizens from others. I have not been able to examine the different practical means of doing this but this would have to be part of further consideration of the issue. My proposal is dependent on finding a satisfactory means of distinguishing the two categories in a way that did not affect the position of those exercising rights under the Good Friday Agreement.
Ciaran O'Kelly suggests that the Government may very well have the appropriate means at hand:
how, practically speaking, can the distinction be made without placing an undue burden on Irish citizens born in Northern Ireland, by say asking for proof of birthplace? Can this be done without producing a barrier (compared to their fellow voters) on people voting in Westminster elections? Would this be solved if voting required possession of some sort of revamped I.D. card and how would that go down on the Falls?
Could the apparent hole in Goldsmith's plan be the real justification for the whole scheme? The official rationale, 'making a clear connection between citizenship and the right to vote', seems rather thin. From 2011 everyone registering for a UK passport will be entered on the National Identity Register. An Irish passport, available to almost everyone in Northern Ireland and a significant number of people in Britain, is an obvious way to opt out.
Taking the right to vote from Irish citizens might be a way a way of closing this loophole. However, it would inevitably tie the political rights of Irish citizens in the North to their entitlement to British citizenship. This is exactly what the status quo is designed to avoid, and could only benefit those republican dissidents who reject the political system entirely.
The e-borders scheme has already shown that the intricacies of the Northern Ireland settlement are not a high priority for those behind the expansion of the database state. Goldsmith's proposal may nevertheless be a step too far. There has been no official response from Downing Street, but there are rumours that Gordon Brown will reject the plan. It has caused some surprise within the Labour Party, as well as provoking opposition from MPs across the political spectrum.
If Brown is wise, he will not allow Labour's worst instincts to undermine one of its greatest legacies.
