be eligible to hold British passports. They and other Irish citizens settled in the United Kingdom would be eligible on the same terms as citizens of Commonwealth and foreign countries to apply for British Citizenship.
CONCLUSIONS
78. The Government think that change on the general lines set out above would offer a more rational basis not only for citizenship but also for immigration control.
In time,
the complex distinctions that now govern the right of entry to the United Kingdom would disappear and citizenship would become the test. The people of the United Kingdom would enjoy a more meaningful status than at present, and the present inequalities between men and women in our nationality
law would be removed.
79.
Overseas there are some different considerations to be
taken into account. Those citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies and other persons eligible to hold British passports now alive who do not have ties with the United Kingdom or an existing dependency would, as British Overseas Citizens, continue to be eligible for British passports during their lifetimes (or until they took another citizenship voluntarily). But, because of the restrictions on acquiring this status after the scheme started, their numbers would
not grow as at present.
80. Those who have close ties with our remaining dependencies would hold a citizenship that properly reflected this
relationship.
81. The ideas in this paper are put forward as a basis for discussion. The Government is not bound by them nor committed to them in their present form. But it hopes that they will provide a framework for the full and informed public discussion that these complex issues merit.