in Northern Ireland. The Home Secretary therefore proposes that we should not apply: the dual nationality provisions to them and that they should continue to have the right, if they were born before 1949, to be able to assert their claim to be British subjects.
The Home Secretary believes, however, that many Members, including a number in the Conservative Party, feel that we are too indulgent to the Irish. He thinks that we have a good case for exempting them from the dual nationality provisions because of the close contact between families in the two countries. He is less sure, however, about the pre-1949 people. They have now had over 30 years in which to assert their claims: 136,000 have done so and between 3,000 and 4,000 still do so each year. Many of these, we believe, do so because there is no fee (as there is for registration as a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies) and accordingly it is a cheap way of qualifying for a British passport. The Home Secretary is inclined to leave the entitlement alone; but there is a case for discontinuing it after, say, two years from the commencement of the Act. He would be glad of any views which Lord Carrington and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland may have on this.
The Home Secretary has asked me to apologise for the length of this letter and to say that he would of course be very willing to meet Lord Carrington, if this seems helpful, to discuss the paper before it is circulated. The Home Secretary, does not. think it essential for agreement to be reached on all the various points before the meeting, although this would of course be helpful. In his view the important thing is to get the paper circulated, and he hopes this can be done within ten days at the most.
I am sending copies of this letter to the Private Secretaries to the Secretaries of State for Defence and for Northern Ireland, the Attorney General and also (in view of the staffing and expenditure implications though these are very small) the Minister of State at the Civil Service Department and the Financial Secretary.
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Yours sincerely
Tony Butler
I
A. J. BUTLER
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