Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)

One of the most recent arguments put forward by the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government for the proposed amendment is that citizenship must involve fidelity to the nation state or, as the Taoiseach said today, we must protect the Constitution. That argument is exceptionally hypocritical. The Constitution is being used or abused in an opportunistic and populist ploy to salvage the declining electoral support for the Government parties. That is the opposite to fidelity to the State. I hope the electorate will see this proposal for what it is, namely, a contrived ruse to distract attention from the real political issues, such as the chaos in the health service, the criminal control of house prices by a handful of billionaire developers, the incompetence of the Minister in failing to tackle the drugs gangs which plague many of our communities, the increasing inequality in our society at a time of great affluence for the wealthy and the endemic corruption in certain political circles. These are only some of the key issues which should exercise the minds of the electorate.

These issues, together with the deliberate misleading of the voters at the last general election, spell disaster for Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats at the forthcoming local and European elections. Some cute manoeuvre was required to avoid a serious defeat in the June elections and this is it. I do not blame the Minister for it. I note the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources is grinning, which is what I would expect because Fianna Fáil is brilliant at cute manoeuvres. This is a classic Fianna Fáil stroke. It produces a populist gimmick to distract attention from its appalling misgovernment and to neutralise the Opposition and then it smirks, like the Minister of State, all the way to the electronic count.

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