Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Ba mhaith liom mo chuid ama a roinnt leis an Teachta Boyle.

There is one section of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Bill 2004 with which I can agree, namely, the removal of the provision enabling citizenship to be conferred on individuals because they have bags of money, allegedly to invest in useful ventures in this country — so-called investment-based naturalisation. It invited corruption and there is at least circumstantial evidence that points in the direction of corruption in the administration of the scheme. The Minister, in proposing the revocation of the measure, should launch an investigation into citizenship granted under the provision. It is quite clear that some buccaneers and venture capitalists of dubious ethics availed of the scheme and disgraced the very concept of an Irish passport where they were active. The Minister should not only investigate but revoke passports granted to such people.

The Bill flows from the Government's initiative in holding the referendum on citizenship rights alongside the local and European elections last June. I invite the Minister to take the opportunity in the Dáil to answer serious questions that have come into my mind in the last 24 hours regarding assertions that he made in arguing for the necessity of the referendum. The Minister quoted senior authorities from the maternity hospitals that they were under severe pressure — bursting at the seams — because of alleged citizenship tourism. On several occasions, the Minister drew a line under those grounds, but now the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street says that it must limit the number of deliveries that it is prepared to carry out or supervise next summer because of pressure.

That begs the question why, if the situation was as the Minister outlined and the referendum was the solution, the maternity hospitals are now apparently under even more pressure. If that alleged problem was resolved, surely there would be much less pressure on the maternity hospitals and therefore an ability to cope with the deliveries of those who are not alleged citizenship tourists or whatever is the appropriate term applied by those favouring the referendum. I hope that the Minister will address that contradiction.

The referendum was of course seen as an opportunity by individuals to use immigrants and immigration as an attempt to gain a base of support for themselves by appealing to very backward instincts which exist only among a minority of people on this island. I do not go along with the claim sometimes glibly made that all Irish people are racists. Nevertheless we had an indication of how some people see the situation and the Minister's proposal of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Bill 2004. A Government backbencher disgracefully and disgustingly exploited immigrants and immigration in Cork a few years ago for base political motives. Last week he rushed into the Dáil waving the Minister's Bill and claiming he had been vindicated.

In the penultimate paragraph of his address to the Dáil when moving Second Stage, the Minister said that he was satisfied that the proposals in the Bill will result in a fair and sensible citizenship law, one which will acknowledge the stake that non-nationals established in Ireland have in Irish society by ensuring that their children born in Ireland are entitled to Irish citizenship. The Minister says we are not concerned with their skin colour, the language they speak or their appearance, but that what matters is that they have a substantial connection with Irish society and that accordingly their children will be part of the Irish nation by operation of law.

The Minister should use his summing up of the Second Stage phase of this debate to outline his thinking on that cohort of immigrants who have been left in the limbo outlined by many people following the various Supreme Court judgments and the citizenship referendum. The Minister knows from the briefs he has received that many people who were progressing asylum requests were advised by weighty lawyers that they did not need to proceed along those lines on the grounds that while they were in Ireland, with asylum requests pending, they had children born as Irish citizens and the parents could therefore hope to be granted residence in Ireland. Such a cohort exists of people who have been in Ireland for many years and whose children know no other country but Ireland, and who are often well integrated in their local communities, befriended and loved by people there. Their children too are similarly treated by local children. The parents are in an appalling nightmare of uncertainty, never knowing when there will be a knock on the door.

It would be greatly appreciated if the Government gave these people the right to remain in Ireland and their children the right to continue their education and be fully integrated as citizens. Many of these people already contribute well to their communities. I know such people and would be happy to have them as neighbours or fellow workers.

The Minister featured prominently in the print media today urging an end to workplace racism and racism generally, a sentiment with which we agree and an end towards which we have constantly worked. However, other aspects of Government policy, in particular the scarcity in housing and the difficulties in health, provide a material basis for certain people to be wrongly resentful of immigrants in our community. While we should counter head-on any tendency by any individual or minority towards racism, getting rid of the bottlenecks in our society, confronting the scarcity of social and affordable housing and solving the health care problems will also make a crucial contribution towards ensuring that we have an island where everyone, immigrant or native born, can have a reasonable expectation of access to good services.

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