Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

I wish to share time with Deputies Cowley and Harkin. This is a very sensitive issue to address. I had some work prepared but I will not read from it as I do not like reading from scripts in general. Following some of the television news reports about this debate this afternoon, to accuse the Government of encouraging xenophobia and racism might seem rather negative or disingenuous, given that many people have valid qualms about the right to citizenship. Nevertheless, I will say it because that is happening on the doorsteps.

During the debate on the Immigration Bill on 29 May 2003 I raised with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the attempt to attract white Anglo-Saxons as opposed to everyone else who wants to make a better life here. The Minister was very indignant and accused me of constituency envy. I would not envy Deputy McDowell in any constituency and am happy to live in Dublin Mid-West. It is a rapidly-growing and extremely multicultural constituency where one is as likely to see a person from Mozambique as from Montpellier within the towns of Lucan, Clondalkin, Newcastle, Saggart, Rathcoole, Brittas and Palmerstown.

Any debate on citizenship or immigration brings out the worst in people. When campaigning, if we ask people about issues of importance to them, they invariably bring up immigration. They are entitled to raise the issues of immigration, people's entitlement to come here and the working conditions they should have because those are valid concerns. Unfortunately, in the absence of a proper civic debate similar to the Forum on Europe, we are left with rumour and innuendo. At every third or fourth house I visit, I meet someone who tells me there are a lot of blacks in this country and that his or her neighbour knows one who waves a big cheque, gets a free car because he has been racially abused on the bus and gets free haircuts. It is absolute claptrap, a total urban myth that must be condemned. At any chance that my colleagues and I get, and any chance any Member of this House gets, because thank God there are no real fascists here, we must refute those arguments. During an election campaign, however, when people are canvassing, they have two or three minutes to ask for a vote and there is no time for a detailed debate on race, immigration, asylum and citizenship. We listen to the soundbites, say they are not true but do not have a chance to scotch the rumours.

This should not be an issue where Deputies appear on "Oireachtas Report" ranting and raving; it must be thought out. It is my firm belief that by holding this referendum on the same day as the local and European elections, the issue will be clouded by urban myths and I believe the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, his party and Fianna Fáil are fully aware of that. That is the nub of the issue.

My colleagues have mentioned the impact of this on the North and Article 2 and Article 9 of the Constitution. We need a proper debate on citizenship without any ranting and raving and without the urban myths. Many of those living in my constituency are from other countries. Some of them now have Irish citizenship and are very good citizens, better in many cases than those who were originally born here.

A debate on citizenship should take place outside the cauldron of electioneering. That is why I am asking the Government to reconsider its position — for the reasons outlined by the parties in the North and the parties on this side of the House. This debate is not about citizenship, it is about fanning the flames of racism outside the House. Impressionable people who are not inherently racist sometimes listen to urban myths and suddenly believe we are being overrun by citizenship tourists. This is a totally false premise and if the Government were being honest it would hold the referendum at another time in the year and not in the heat of an election.

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