A change to the law that would grant citizenship to children born to foreign parents in Ireland after living here for three years is being opposed by the government.
The Labour Party has proposed a change to the law to deal with the “injustice” of children facing deportation despite never having lived in any other country.
The Bill will be debated in the Seanad on Wednesday.
Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said there are issues in the Bill that amount to “bad law” and the government won’t be accepting the bill, the Irish Independent reports.
He added that the Bill was “something of a knee-jerk reaction to a particular problem".
The proposed legislation come following the recent case of 9-year-old Eric Zhi Ying Xue who was born in ireland but was facing deportation to China.
Eric, from Bray, no longer faced an imminent threat of deportation after his case was reviewed.
Labour Senator Ivana Bacik said that there was widespread concern for such children who “know no other home but Ireland and that they are effectively stateless if we do not give them permission to remain here”.
A referendum in 2004 took away the automatic right to Irish citizenship for children born in the country.
If passed, the Bill would allow children who have been born in Ireland and been a resident for three years to apply for citizenship as an independent applicant regardless of their parents’ status.
But Ms Bacik stressed that the Bill would not overturn the change brought by the referendum.
She added: “It would simply adjust the situation in Irish citizenship law to deal with the position of a small number of children who we say are currently being done an injustice because they face deportation.”
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