Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

If Deputy Howlin claims that a compelling case has not been made, obviously he did not listen to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform at the start of the debate. Then again, with all the heckling, how could he have heard?

I welcome the opportunity to address this important issue for the country. This Bill is about bringing Ireland into line with the rest of Europe. The programme for Government contains a commitment to examine the need for constitutional or other measures that might be required to address the number of applications for residence being made by non-national parents of children born in the State. The constitutional amendment proposes to return to the Oireachtas the power to decide the citizenship entitlements of people born on the island of Ireland, neither of whose parents is an Irish citizen. The Irish Nationality and Citizenship Bill seeks to ensure that in the case of a child born to two non-national parents, at least one of the parents will have been resident in Ireland for three of the four years before the child becomes eligible for Irish citizenship.

This compares favourably with other EU member states. Spain, Sweden and Greece do not grant citizenship to children born to non-national citizens. Instead, citizenship can be gained through declaration when the child is aged between 18 and 20 years in Spain and between 21 and 23 years in Sweden. For the latter country, this is remarkable considering how liberal it is in its modus operandi. In Greece, when a child reaches 18 years, he or she can apply for naturalisation. The position is similar in Italy and France. The Government is proposing to bring our citizenship regime into line with Europe. The Irish regime will still be one of the most liberal in the EU if this amendment to the Constitution is passed. Irish citizenship law, which grants an entitlement to citizenship to all persons born on this island, is unique in the EU.

The general EU model is a law whereby citizenship is acquired by descent from an existing citizen, place of birth being largely irrelevant. In every other EU state citizenship is provided only to children of citizens or permanent residents, or to a child born on its territory after a set period of residence in that State, usually quite a long time and after attaining a certain age. The Government seeks to bring Irish citizenship law into line with the rest of Europe. It cannot be credibly asserted that this move is illiberal or unduly uncaring.

I listened to Deputy Rabbitte in an interview over the weekend and I may be incorrect but I think I heard him refer to trying to prevent pregnant women from boarding a plane in the first instance. That raises Deputy Howlin's point about perhaps having paternity cases. Can Deputy Rabbitte tell us how he would envisage people being prevented from boarding aeroplanes in other countries, that is if the women travel by aeroplane? Most asylum seekers arrive by other means, particularly from across the Border. How can one have an arrangement such as Deputy Rabbitte envisages whereby, in effect, people are tested before using the modus operandi to come here, whether by aeroplane or ferry?

What is standard elsewhere is hardly unreasonable for Ireland. The Supreme Court judgment of 23 January 2003 in the L and O case clarified the position of the non-national parents of Irish-born children. The judgment decided that the non-national parents of children born in Ireland had no automatic right to reside in Ireland. In the 13 months since the L and O case there has been no significant fall in the percentage of non-nationals arriving heavily pregnant into the State. This is clearly a cause for concern. The most logical conclusion to draw from this fact is that non-national parents perceive an advantage by giving birth in Ireland to a child who automatically becomes an EU citizen. It is also logical to conclude that because this does not happen in any other EU state, it happens here because those states do not share our citizenship laws regarding birth.

The data available from the Office of the Refugee Application Commissioner shows that over the past year the number of asylum seekers pregnant at the time of application was almost 60% of the total female applicants over 16 years of age. Approximately 25% of all births in public hospitals in the Dublin area last year were to non-nationals. When births in other hospitals, in particular in my constituency, Drogheda, are taken into account, the national figures are far higher. Data supplied by the masters of the three Dublin maternity hospitals show that those hospitals had 4,824 births to non-nationals in 2003.

Article 9.2 of the Constitution states, "Fidelity to the nation and loyalty to the State are fundamental political duties of all citizens." Citizenship is a precious thing and we cannot allow it to be acquired without consideration for that loyalty and fidelity, as required by the Constitution. The parties opposite are, in effect, calling for citizenship without responsibility. We need to be clear about that fact and they should state their views on this issue. We are also confident that these proposals are in line with the Good Friday Agreement. The draft legislation follows the definitions used in the British-Irish Agreement. In his speech, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform referred to Deputy Quinn's comments in the run-up to the finalisation of the Good Friday Agreement. Fianna Fáil in Government was central to the delivery of that Agreement and would do nothing to undermine it.

It would be extremely cynical for any party or Member of this House to play the race card on this issue. I urge all parties, inside and outside the House, to turn from this small-minded, reactionary route. For anyone to attempt to charge this debate with race issues will undermine not only his or her credibility and arguments but also the public's confidence in his or her ability to develop and put forward policy on asylum, citizenship or multiculturalism. It will undermine the vision of Ireland as a country mature enough to debate citizenship free from racism. I was disappointed to read that already Deputy Rabbitte has spoken of unleashing a racist undertone and the creation of a racist platform. This proposal does no such thing.

It is the duty of all Oireachtas Members who are in leadership positions in their communities to defeat all efforts to create such racist platforms or undertones. It is equally disappointing that Deputy Kenny asserted that the Government wants a divisive and contentious debate that could generate racist commentary. Let us keep race out of this referendum. It is baseless to assert that for the Oireachtas to be given more power to debate and enact laws on the issue of citizenship is racist or in any way empowers racists. The Cabinet considered in detail when to hold this referendum. We rejected the idea of a referendum to coincide with a potential presidential election. The incumbent President would be excluded from comment on the issue especially as the parties opposite would seek to turn any presidential election into a race referendum. We also rejected the notion of holding it on a standalone basis because there are lower turnouts for such referenda. This could result in a higher relative vote from both radical sides of the debate which would be undesirable. Multi-issue polling draws a higher, broader turnout. That is why we chose the date of the European and local elections. We also intend to deal with the citizenship issues at length in the subsequent Dáil debate.

The proposal to return to the Oireachtas the power to decide the citizenship entitlements of people born on the island of Ireland, neither of whose parents is an Irish citizen, is to be commended to the House. The Irish Nationality and Citizenship Bill 2004 seeks to ensure that in the case of a child born to two non-national parents, at least one of the parents must have been resident in Ireland for three of the four years before the child becomes eligible for Irish citizenship. The House should reject outright any attempts to stoke a racist fire in the name of political expediency.

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