Citizenship Ceremonies
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-16
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Joe Conway (IND), Cultural and Educational Panel

I am very warmed by what the Minister of State had to say. A couple of things struck me about this. There are people in society who would have rejoiced in a victory in thwarting that ceremony last week. On balance, it was reasonable to compromise and put it back to June. What I am really asking the Minister to commit to is to have in reserve a system where we can go back and use the online declarations, if such an occasion were to arise again. The blueprint is there. It should not be too hard to organise. I am very happy to hear that the Minister is going to work with those people who are discommoded by a lack of documents. That is very uplifting as well. What the Minister of State said is that the day is very important. I also worry that those people are going to be shoehorned into the June presentations and celebrations and unfortunately the people who were earmarked in the queue for June will, necessarily, be put back into the autumn. It is just an unfortunate situation that has happened, but we should be taking definite steps to make sure it does not happen again.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-16