Liam Twomey (Wexford, Independent)

I accept that because it is accurate. However, none of the figures from the maternity hospitals is accurate from that point of view.

I wish to refer to another issue in regard to our health services on which I have been working for the past decade. We are all well aware of how badly we have treated foreign doctors who have kept our health services from collapsing over the years. In times gone by, we denied them access to their families in that they were not allowed to bring their families with them. We continue to deny them the same career opportunities as Irish graduates even though many of these people will have worked in the health services for more than seven or eight years — longer than some of the people appointed as consultants because they are Irish graduates. There is inherent racism in how we treat foreign doctors in the health system, not to mention the patients. Whether we have had a Labour Party or a Fianna Fáil Minister for Health and Children, these problems have existed for quite some time. We need to wake up to this issue because our health system is becoming more dependent on non-nationals, including not only doctors but nurses, radiographers and all the allied health professionals.

I wish to put on record a recent event which was missed by the national media and which shows how far we have progressed. Last week at the Irish Medical Organisation conference, Dr. Asam Ishtiaq was elected vice-president of the organisation. Next year Dr. Ishtiaq will be made president of the Irish Medical Organisation and will play a leadership role for 5,500 doctors, consultants and general practitioners. Dr. Ishtiaq started his career in this country as a non-national. In some respects, his election shows how much we can progress. We should bear it in mind when we discuss citizenship and try to mix it up with racism and immigration which are completely separate issues. We should try to separate these issues.

The issue of work permits and immigration gets mixed up with social welfare claims by non-nationals. When we give work permits to non-nationals, they are issued in the name of the employer. In some respects, that is almost like a state of bonded labour. If the employee has a problem with the employer and the employer pulls the work permit, it makes the employee illegal even though this nation needs these people to help us out. We need to start to look at these types of issues as separate and not let them get mixed up in this debate.

On the question of new EU citizens coming to Ireland, I hope joining the EU will improve their economies. When we joined the EU, there was no explosion of Irish citizens going to wealthier EU countries. We continued with our regular emigration to the UK and the USA until our economy improved. Having spoken to citizens from the accession states, I believe it will be the same. I do not believe they have any great desire to come flooding into Ireland. They would much rather seek opportunities to develop their own countries under the umbrella of the EU. Therefore, the whole idea of citizenship and what we are voting for in June should be explained to us. I do not have the legal training required to understand the wording of the referendum. I look forward to listening to reasonable commentators explain the pitfalls in the wording over the next few weeks.

I believe in the idea of citizenship. Will this amendment, if passed, be of disadvantage to people that we would otherwise like to see as citizens? Previous amendments to the Constitution have fallen down when tested in the legal system. It is to be hoped the Government will take on board any discussions on the wording of the Constitution. When the Bill goes through Committee Stage in the Dáil we will make alterations to make sure there are no unintended results. We should start to separate out the issues. We need a good immigration policy and the fair treatment of non-nationals working in this country.

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