Liam Twomey (Wexford, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill. There are two issues in this debate. One issue concerns the wording of the amendment and whether it will stand up to tests in the courts in future years. Unfortunately, I have no legal training, so I must wait and see what the arguments in this debate will turn up in the next few weeks on whether this will stand up to the legalities. The other point relates to the issues surrounding the necessity for this change. Protecting the right of citizenship is not a racist issue. We are muddying the waters in this debate by confusing the issue of citizenship with other issues which are probably far more important to non-nationals living in this country. We need an enlightened immigration policy which allows more freedom for those who have work permits to have their families here with them and to progress in our society without being hindered by our restrictive immigration laws. This, however, is not an issue relating to citizenship.

Citizenship has nothing to do with asylum laws. People seeking asylum are looking for protection from the State and are not looking for citizenship. The word "racism" is being thrown around a lot in this debate. Those who like to promote racism or to prey on the fears of people about racism have a far better chance of achieving their goals if we do not have legislation which protects the right to citizenship. They can go around soft-selling the idea that this country is a soft touch and that it will be overrun by non-nationals. Laws such as this protect non-nationals who live here from assault and abuse.

Before the Celtic tiger, a large number of non-nationals used to work in our hospitals and attend our colleges but these issues did not arise because these people were not seen as economic immigrants; they were seen as paying their way or making a contribution to society. Now that there is this perception in certain sections of society that these people are abusing the system, they are more open to assault and racist abuse. If we give the impression we have good laws, we will see less of that.

The holding of this referendum on the same day we are to elect people to county councils and to the European Parliament might be good in that it might increase the turnout which would provide a better representation of the views of the people. Citizenship, like elections, is part of our democracy and it should be respected by all the people. I hope there will be a good turnout on the day.

We are treating our constituents with disrespect if we believe they cannot differentiate between the importance of an issue such as a citizenship and whether it is held on the same day as another poll or some other time. The idea of racism and its being used in a political context by some politicians to somehow get themselves elected is a reflection on the politician's inability to promote himself rather than on the inability of voters to make a sensible decision. I do not believe that is a huge issue in this election.

The number of births in maternity hospitals was the first reason mooted by the Government for this referendum but it has since rowed back on this. When seeking information on non-nationals, whether working here legitimately or whether seeking to abuse our easy access to citizenship, it has been almost impossible to get straight answers. I still have doubts about many of the figures and believe they will always remain anecdotal. When I worked in maternity hospitals, we never sat down and asked people why they were here. Many Irish women turn up in ante-natal clinics to have their third or fourth child when they are 30 weeks or more pregnant. It is not only non-nationals who can be careless about their ante-natal care and we might be confusing that with the idea that they are coming here to seek citizenship. There is no way of getting accurate information such as that because one cannot pull all the ante-natal charts in the maternity hospitals and go through them to find a question asking whether the individual is here to get citizenship for her baby. There is no way one can correlate that information. If one pulled charts on Irish patients, one would have the same problem. Anecdotal evidence exists and while it may be part of the matter, it is not the core issue.

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