Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

The Independents are giving full support to that motion and amendment, as has now been confirmed. The SDLP has angrily attacked the proposals and categorically denied that it was ever consulted. The DUP has gleefully pointed out that the Irish Government is unilaterally renegotiating the Good Friday Agreement while the parties to the Agreement are sitting in Stormont with strict instructions not to dare to renegotiate any element of the Agreement as it is set in stone and they are allowed only to review it.

The Government has played right into the hands of those who wished to destroy the Good Friday Agreement and we will see the impact of and fall-out from that in the coming months. Mr. Bruce Morrison, the former US Senator who did such sterling work for Irish immigrants in the United States in the 1980s and who acquired some 50,000 precious visas for illegal Irish immigrants there has opposed this referendum on principle. The chairman of the Human Rights Commission, the statutory body set up under the Good Friday Agreement, with its counterpart in Northern Ireland, has expressed the gravest concern about the inadequate time scale and the implications of the referendum for the Good Friday Agreement. Mr. Hugh O'Flaherty, the former Supreme Court judge and a well-known friend of the Taoiseach wrote in the latest issue of The Dubliner that "The idea that there should be a constitutional referendum to deal with non-nationals coming here to give birth lacks any rational basis." He goes on to say that the objection to politicians interfering with the Constitution to provide ad hoc solutions to specific problems is fundamental to a constitutional democracy such as ours. He stated that the role of a constitution is to provide the framework for the exercise of legislative power, that it sets out the headlines, is meant to be far-seeing and its provisions are not to be tampered with at the whim of politicians. These are strong words but there were stronger to come. Hugh O'Flaherty concluded by asking what difference it made if our citizenship laws are more liberal than other countries in the European Union. So what indeed? What is the problem? Why is it so urgent? What are the facts? Where are the numbers?

On 19 February, the Taoiseach told Deputy Quinn that he had no intention of holding a referendum this year. Until the end of March the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste denied that there had been any decision to hold a referendum during the forthcoming elections. Suddenly, on 31 March, the Taoiseach discovered "flagrant abuses" of our citizenship laws and the urgent need to combine the local and European elections with a referendum.

On 7 April, when the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform briefed the parties' justice spokesmen, he reiterated the canard that the masters of the maternity hospitals had pleaded with him for legislative action because of the soaring birth rates to non-nationals. There is still no breakdown, however, of the number of births to non-nationals in the maternity hospitals, despite request after request. He specifically mentioned that he has no precise figures for the Rotunda hospital but there are no precise figures for any of the maternity hospitals. We still do not know how many children were born to the 48,000 migrant workers who were invited to this country from the four corners of the globe by the Tánaiste to act as bonded employees of her beloved entrepreneurs. In the figures trotted out by the Minister, we have not been told the number of children born to parents who, having fled persecution in their own countries, have been granted asylum and refugee status under our strict asylum laws. We do not know the number born to asylum seekers who have had to languish idle for years through no fault of their own while waiting for their asylum applications to be heard. We do not know the number of those referred to by the Minister as citizenship tourists, those wealthy people who fly into Ireland to have their baby, get an Irish passport and fly out again. We just do not know what the problem is or if there is a problem at all because there are no statistics. We are, however, going to change our Constitution.

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform stated that he had identified a problem in October 2002, nearly two years ago. Of course he did nothing about it then. There was no sense of urgency because that was after the 2002 election but we are now in the run-up to the 2004 elections and we must rush this legislation through.

We do know, however, that we sold our citizenship to the highest bidder in the 1980s and 1990s. Under the passports for sale scheme, any rich sheikh or shady entrepreneur with a spare £1 million to invest in an ailing Irish business was welcomed with open arms. Occasionally even he and his family were waited upon by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice of the day and the passports were handed over personally in the salubrious environs of the Shelbourne Hotel. Despite my best efforts and the best efforts of the Labour Party to highlight the abuse of the passports for sale scheme, the Minister does not propose to include any provision in his draft Irish nationality and citizenship Bill to address this situation. He does not propose to revoke Irish citizenship from those wealthy foreign nationals who are fugitives from justice, yet who use their purchased Irish passports to travel the world.

Victor Kozeny is a Czech national whose career I have been following and reminding the Minister of for some time. On 27 April, the national television broadcaster of the Czech Republic will come to Ireland to cover the ceremony of accession and it has asked to interview me about this man. I would be surprised if the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has not been asked for a similar interview.

Victor Kozeny is a fugitive from Czech justice facing an international warrant for his arrest on charges of defrauding 800,000 Czech citizens of £3.6 billion. The US authorities are seeking his arrest and extradition on fraud charges involving up to £150 million. The Czech Republic has stripped him of his Czech citizenship but he travels the world unhindered on his Irish passport. In January he announced his intention to use that passport to found a political party, the Civil Federal Democracy Party, and to stand in the first Czech elections to the European Parliament. Without his Irish passport he would be unable to run for election and he would almost certainly be languishing behind bars. I wonder when the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will direct his attention towards plugging this blatant loophole. To 800,000 citizens of the Czech Republic, this is a fundamental issue.

Yesterday I listened to the Tánaiste on "Morning Ireland" desperately trying to defend the Government's failure to consult prior to the announcement of the referendum. There was no consultation at all with other parties. How could there be when this was the Government's secret election weapon to be kept under wraps until the last moment? As recently as 31 March, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Cowen, told the Dáil that no formal discussions had taken place with the British authorities on this subject. By the time the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform briefed the justice spokespersons, he was able to tell us that he had consulted the British Government and obtained its approval for his proposal.

The process of amending the Constitution is very important. The Constitution is the fundamental document that defines our democracy and should be treated with the utmost respect.

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