Irish citizenship for gay immigrants in civil partnerships with Irish citizens is among the previsions of new legislation signed into law recently.
The Civil Law (Miscell-aneous Provisions) Act 2011 introduces a stipulation allowing immigrants to apply for Irish citizenship three years after their civil partnership to an Irish citizen, as is the condition within marriages.
The changes also provide greater flexibility for the Justice Minister on the settling of fees for citizenship applications.
Meanwhile, the legislation includes an amendment relating to immigrants’ prior obligation to present identification on demand to gardaí or immigration officers, which was found unconstitutional in a High Court ruling last March.
Previously it was a criminal offence – punishable by up to one year’s imprisonment – for a non-Irish person to fail to produce identification to gardaí without “a satisfactory explanation”.
But the judgement in March found that the wording of the legislation was vague and therefore created “considerable potential” for its subjective application by gardaí.
The newly introduced amendment, which is now in law, provides a defence for the person if they can prove they “had reasonable cause” for not complying with the requirement to produce ID.
It is understood that over 500 people were prosecuted in the past four years under the old provision, which was challenged by an asylum seeker who claimed to be from Liberia.
CSO figures show the number of people convicted for failing to produce ID was three in 2005, 144 in 2006, 250 in 2007 and 291 in 2008.
