Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

Níl mé sásta leis an oiread ama atá tugtha don díospóireacht seo mar is díospóireacht tábhachtach é. Ó thaobh aon reifreann de, ba chóir go mbeadh an deis ag gach uile Teachta sa Teach méid ar ghá dó a rá a rá sa Teach seo agus níl 16 uair a chloig fada go leor. Tá mise ag labhairt ar feadh 20 noiméad agus déarfainn gur mhaith le a lán de na Teachtaí eile sa Teach seo labhairt ar feadh 20 noiméad ar an cheist seo agus níos faide más gá. Tá sé i gceist an tseachtain seo chugainn go mbeadh an díospóireacht déanta i gcúpla uair a chloig ar an Chéadaoin agus arís go gcríochnófar Céim na Tuarascála de laistigh de dhá uair a chloig agus níl sé sin maith go leor. Measaim gur chóir go mbeadh an deis ann go dtí go dteipeann ar an díospóireacht go bhfuil an méid ráite againn gur chóir a bheith ráite agus ansin go gcuirfear chun vóta é. Sa chéad dul síos ní chóir go mbeadh sé seo curtha chuig vóta in aon chor — ní chóir go mbeadh an cheist seo os ár gcomhair. Measaim nach seo an cheist gur chóir go mbeimis ag cur. An cheist gur chóir go mbeimis ag cur agus an rud ba chóir linn deileáil leis ag an am seo i saol an Stáit seo ná ba chóir go mbeadh polasaí imirceach ceart os ár gcomhair. Ansin má tá fadhbanna ann amach anseo, is féidir ansin féachaint, agus féachaint go fadalach, ar an Bhunreacht.

This proposal is another front in the Minister's war on a rights-based society. With his attack on immigration and the Good Friday Agreement he has earned the title of Minister for injustice and inequality in this State and beyond. This Bill helps him live up to that title.

I challenge his claim that this proposal is not racist and will not encourage racism. I note he has taken care to point out that the measure is not racist in intent. Maybe not, but he has conspicuously avoided arguing that the proposal will not be racist in effect. He should prove to us that the referendum will not be racist in effect. He knows full well what the negative effect on Irish society will be but he has concluded that nothing will deter him from his cut-throat pursuit of political gains no matter how high the price. That price will be a high one, whether it is wrecking the peace process or raising racial tensions in the State.

The proposal to grant some people the right of citizenship by birth but to remove the right of citizenship by birth from other babies from a different ethnic background, is nothing less than an introduction of citizenship based on race, and such a proposal is more appropriate to cross-burning than a constitutional amendment.

The arguments presented in support of this proposal are profoundly flawed, based on partial evidence, and framed to aggravate pre-existing prejudices. This is an unacceptable risk, as racism in the State has already prompted a rising level of hate crime which has resulted in assaults and deaths. Our time in the House would be used more constructively in putting together proper hate crime legislation which would address the rise in racism. We should put together an immigration policy to address the challenges we face in modern Ireland; that policy could then be addressed if issues arise with it in one or five years' time.

Let us not lose sight of the fact that the Supreme Court decision of 2003 which reaffirmed the right of Irish children born to non-national parents to citizenship. There is nothing in that decision that justifies the Government's proposal to strip children in this social category of their citizenship rights. The Minister's conduct in publicising the proposal has violated his responsibility both as Minister and as a signatory to the anti-racist protocol for political parties that he reaffirmed little more than a month ago. He has done this in three ways.

First, he has propagated the pejorative term and concept of "citizenship tourism" or "baby tourism", and he has deliberately misused aggregate statistics in doing so. In effect, the Minister is encouraging people to look at all pregnant women of non-Irish ethnic origin with suspicion. He is inviting people to presume that all such women, pushing their Irish children in prams, got pregnant and had their babies here to scam the taxpayer, steal our hard-earned money, and hoover up the health care and housing that is "rightfully" ours. Most hurtful of all, he is encouraging people to consider these children as not being fully Irish because their ethnic background is not Irish. Underlying his arguments is the fundamentally flawed racist premise that the motivations of Irish migrants are somehow different, inherently more trustworthy and more legitimate than the motivations of non-Irish migrants. If these ideas are not racist, then I do not know what they are. As Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell has a special responsibility to challenge these misconceptions and not reinforce them, as he has cynically done to justify his own ideological agenda for electoral purposes.

Third, the Minister has also promoted public misunderstanding of the impact of immigration on the economy because he is actively promoting the myth that non-nationals drain scarce economic resources. International evidence shows that this simply is not true. In fact, the Minister of State, Deputy Hanafin, accepted that they are vital for our economy. The Minister, Deputy McDowell, however, conveniently ignores the fact that immigration is an engine of the economy and that, statistically, immigrants are net economic contributors. If he believed that, the first item on the agenda would be aimed at tackling immigration policy, not denying citizenship to such people. Not only does immigration bring workers who pay taxes into the Exchequer, but it is also the only factor slowing the ageing of the population. This matters because an ageing population imposes costs and income constraints on society. The taxes young immigrants pay and the children they produce, help to buoy an economy that would otherwise be saddled with ever increasing pension costs and a dwindling pool of young workers to pay into pension funds. Our European neighbours will attest to that fact. Economically speaking, not only do we need immigrants but we also need their children.

What is disgusting about the Minister's resource scarcity theory is that it uses common myths about immigrants to cover up the lack of health care and housing resulting from this and previous Governments' consistent under funding of public services, including the cutback in maternity beds in the 1980s that has never been reversed. This issue indicates the refusal of the Government, and its previous incarnations, to raise social spending to at least meet the EU average. These myths have been used to try to demonstrate that such problems are the fault of immigrants, while it has been proven that this is not so. If we had a proper immigration policy we could see the full benefit to be obtained from those who are willing to travel to our shores to work. Immigrants should have the right to work here, as well as the right to change jobs, which is another issue concerning the work permit system. I hope we will come back to that issue as quickly as possible when the people have rejected this referendum.

All these actions not only exploit but reinforce and encourage racial prejudice and stereotyping. As such, they amount to a violation of the responsibilities of signatories to the anti-racist protocol for political parties, which have been agreed in order not to incite hatred or prejudice on the grounds of nationality, ethnic or national origin. The Minister knows that his proposal will fan the flames of racism here but he is prepared to do so in the hope of electoral gain. It is the height of irresponsibility and, once again, calls into question the fitness of the Minister to hold his portfolio. Even at this late stage, I would urge the Taoiseach to re-think the position that Deputy McDowell holds in Government. The Taoiseach and the rest of his Cabinet colleagues are also irresponsible in having allowed the matter to reach this stage. It calls into question their fitness for office, as well.

To return to the issue of racism, the outcome of the Government's proposal will be the unequal treatment of Irish children on the basis of their ethnic origin. Children born in Ireland who are ethnically Irish will get preferential treatment, with their rights unchanged and recognised in law. Children born in Ireland who have a different ethnic origin will get second-class treatment and their constitutional rights will be removed. This is nothing less than an ethnic cleansing of the Constitution. It is both repulsive and wrong.

The Government is constructing this as an election issue in order to deflect attention away from its abysmal record on health, housing and education, as well as the Minister's refusal to confront the problem of high crime rates and the failure of policing in working class communities. In particular, the Government is trying to scapegoat non-nationals for the crisis in the hospital system in order to deflect attention from its mismanagement of the health service over almost ten years. This is totally unacceptable.

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