#keepitfiveSay no to the citizenship overhaul

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What has been said since the Scheme landed

Coverage and statements on the eight-year rule, newest first. The most recent are here; the rest open below.

  1. Ireland’s Citizenship Bill 2026: what changes and whenDeliberately Éire · The whole Scheme explained in plain English, Head by Head, and one woman who lands in January 2026 followed through five different stamps. On a work permit she waits until 2034 instead of 2031. With a PhD, 2038.
  2. ‘I fell in love with Ireland’: Joy at citizenship ceremony despite looming new rulesThe Irish Times · James Cox at the Convention Centre, where 5,600 people became citizens under the old rules. Colm Brophy, there to hand them out, calls the changes “not in any way restrictive”.
  3. New Irish citizens elated at ceremonies, but sympathetic for friends facing stricter rulesThe Journal · Kate Henshaw. Ahmed Imbabi, a doctor in Donegal, on the people a year off applying: “they have one year left, and then this comes into effect, I would be devastated.”
  4. New citizenship rules ‘will be difficult for some people’RTÉ · The same week as the ceremonies, the people still waiting. One woman seven years here: “It’s very difficult to be here with no Irish citizenship.”
  5. Citizenship change proposals are deeply short-sightedThe Irish Times · Letters · Gill Kennedy on the nurses, doctors and engineers who spent five years saving for an application, and on a country with falling birth rates making itself harder to settle in.
  6. More than 13,000 waiting over a year for citizenship decisionsIrish Examiner · Louise Burne: 51,882 live applications, 5,070 of them waiting over two years, 81 staff to process them. The three extra years land on top of that queue.
  7. Citizenship by descent is not racist, and language tests make perfect senseThe Irish Times · Michael McDowell answers O’Toole for the other side: nationality over residence, tests as Europe does them. The eight years themselves he does not defend, or mention.
  8. New “hostile” immigration laws criticised by oppositionDublin People · Labour, the Greens and the ICCL on the eight years: a barrier for people already settled, and a cost to the workers Ireland is trying to keep.
See all the coverage, back to the first interview
  1. The government wants to add “integration” conditions. Will it up its own game, too?Dublin Inquirer · Shamim Malekmian: no national integration strategy, English classes hard to reach, and the people with the least stable housing hit hardest by the new tests.
  2. Living in Milwaukee with a Mayo granny automatically makes you Irish. Living here doesn’tThe Irish Times · Fintan O’Toole: the Government believes it is addressing an urgent problem, but is unable to tell us what the problem is.
  3. Brazilian man begs Government to consider people nearing five-year residencyIrish Examiner · Ivan arrived in July 2022 and would qualify next July. The Minister, asked about people like him: “if you have been here for four years and 10 months by the time the laws are commenced, it will affect you.”
  4. Is it easier to become a naturalised citizen in Ireland than elsewhere?The Irish Times · Naomi O’Leary asks two migration academics. Five years is typical and leans liberal; eight would put Ireland among the least hospitable in Europe.
  5. It’s easy to look tough on immigration. It’s much harder to build empathyThe Irish Times · Una Mullally: in practice another bureaucratic obstacle, and in meaning “arbitrary cruelty-by-admin”.
  6. Moving the goalposts on citizenship rules is deeply unfairThe Irish Times · Letters · A GP in Athenry on the overseas doctors who worked through Covid, and a reader who calls the retrospective reach an invitation to judicial review.
  7. Under new citizenship proposals, my 4.5 years in Ireland are being erasedThe Irish Times · Letters · A reader four and a half years in: the years already served would count for nothing.
  8. How do citizenship language tests work in other European countries?The Journal · David MacRedmond: B1 is the common European bar and plenty of states sit at A2. Ireland has not said which language, which level, or who writes the test.
  9. Before legislating against an imagined danger, establish that the danger actually existsIrish Medical Times · No published research, no impact assessment, and no problem named that eight years would fix.
  10. Open letter: retain the five-year citizenship pathway for healthcare professionalsIrish Medical Times · A health service built on international doctors and nurses asks the Government to leave their route alone.
  11. Citizenship rule change moves goalposts on hard-working peopleIrish Examiner · Imasha Costa: like changing the rules of inter-county hurling five minutes into the second half.
  12. New citizenship rules risk alienating people Ireland urgently needs to retainThe Irish Times · Letters · The people the State spends most on recruiting are the ones the rule would push back three years.
  13. Jim O’Callaghan can look to the UK to see if making life hard for immigrants helps integrationThe Irish Times · Jack Sheehan: decades of British tightening produced more tension, not less — from the same parties that sold residency to wealthy buyers until 2023.
  14. Jim O’Callaghan compared to Trump and Nigel Farage over his citizenship rule changesThe Journal · David MacRedmond: People Before Profit and Solidarity on the politics of it. Ruth Coppinger on the eight years: “There’s no need for it, no call for it.”
  15. Government approval secured for the priority drafting of the Billgov.ie · Cabinet clears the Bill for drafting and sends the Scheme to the justice committee. Target: enacted by Christmas.
  16. ‘Disappointed and shocked’: Protesters criticise proposed new rules for Irish citizenshipThe Irish Times · The people who came out against the proposals, in their own words.
  17. ‘People just want safety’: Migrants feel ‘targeted’ by Irish citizenship reformsThe Irish Times · Jack White speaks to people who have built their five years and would have to start again.
  18. What would a language test for new Irish citizens look like?RTÉ Brainstorm · What a test in English, Irish or ISL would actually involve, and what other countries set as the bar.
  19. Ireland Plans Eight-Year Residency, Language Tests Under Citizenship OverhaulBloomberg · The proposals read from outside Ireland, as a move to curb immigration.
  20. The Irish Times view on new citizenship regulations: tough talk and vague intentionsThe Irish Times · Editorial · Warm words at the ceremonies, blunt pledges to cut numbers, and no detail in between: “populist declarations about cutting numbers while avoiding saying how.”
  21. What problem is Jim O’Callaghan trying to solve with new hurdles to citizenship?The Irish Times · Letters · Gerry Prizeman on an economy sustained by workers born elsewhere, and Gerald Flynn on a residence rule that was three years until last year.
  22. Sinn Féin ‘open’ to reviewing pathways to citizenship, McDonald saysThe Journal · Jane Moore: Mary Lou McDonald has “no objection to having a structured pathway” and would look at language or community requirements, without committing against the eight years.
  23. Jim O’Callaghan’s new citizenship laws: an attack on migrantsSolidarity · Reads the Bill as chasing the far right rather than fixing anything in the system.
  24. Citizenship changes risk cutting migrants out of Irish life, organisations warnIrish Legal News · Covers the joint statement and the legal objections to the eight-year rule.
  25. Language test for Irish citizenship raises questionsThe Irish Times · Letters · Which language, at what level, marked by whom — none of it is answered by the Scheme.
  26. Citizenship proposals will destroy a crucial route to integrationICCL and six others · Joint statement: no rationale, no research and no evidence has been presented for any of this.
  27. Citizenship rules to be tightened with longer residency and language testThe Journal · The proposals as announced: eight years, a language test and a civics test.
  28. Citizenship a privilege, says minister ahead of overhaulRTÉ · Jim O’Callaghan makes the case before Cabinet: an earned privilege, not the passage of time.
  29. Eight-year citizenship rule is performative politicsThe Labour Party · Alan Kelly TD asks what problem eight years is meant to solve, and wants the plan dropped.
  30. Irish citizenship is something to be valued, rules must reflect thatSinn Féin · Matt Carthy TD, who chairs the committee that will scrutinise the Bill, backs language and civics tests and does not oppose the eight years.
  31. The Government’s weaponisation of citizenship rulesPeople Before Profit · Says the mainstream right is competing with the far right to inflame anti-immigrant opinion.
  32. ‘Harsh’ to make migrants wait eight years for Irish citizenshipNewstalk · John Lannon of Doras: eight years is the time a family’s children would go through primary school.

Who else

You are not the only one saying this.

Every organisation, party and piece of coverage we could find against the eight-year rule. The petitions are on Take action. If you know of something missing, tell us.

Eleven organisations, parties and outlets. Drag or scroll sideways.

Joint statement Irish Council for Civil Liberties Published the statement seven organisations signed on 7 September: no rationale, no research and no evidence has been presented for any of this. iccl.ie → Organisation Immigrant Council of Ireland Free legal advice and an information line on citizenship and permanency. Signed the joint statement. immigrantcouncil.ie → Organisation Doras Limerick-based migrant rights NGO, working nationally on integration and immigration policy. Signed the joint statement. doras.org → Organisation Irish Refugee Council Runs the information hub explaining the new asylum and citizenship laws as they land. Signed the joint statement. irishrefugeecouncil.ie → Organisation Migrant Rights Centre Ireland Organises migrant workers and tracks citizenship policy and ceremony dates. Signed the joint statement. mrci.ie → Organisation Nasc, the Migrant and Refugee Rights Centre Cork-based, legal support and advocacy for migrants and refugees. Signed the joint statement. nascireland.org → Organisation AkiDwA National network of migrant women living in Ireland. Signed the joint statement. akidwa.ie → Party People Before Profit Calls the changes a weaponisation of citizenship rules, with the mainstream right competing with the far right to inflame anti-immigrant opinion. pbp.ie → Party Solidarity Reads the bill as an attack on migrants, written to chase the far right rather than to fix anything in the system. solidarity.ie → Explainer Irish Citizenship Changes 2026: What’s Actually Proposed A plain, calm walk through what is in the Scheme and what is not, for people trying to work out whether it catches them. howtoireland.com → Coverage Irish Legal News Following the Bill through drafting and scrutiny, and the lawyers and organisations raising objections to it. irishlegal.com →