Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I know the record of the Department. When Eamon de Valera wanted to allow Jewish immigration into this State, the Department of Justice prevented it. If people want me to do so, I will produce chapter and verse about the activities of that Department. Why can we not have a rational debate on the issue of citizenship? Why can we not have time for such a debate? None of us believes that citizenship is an easy or simple issue with which to deal. When the Good Friday Agreement was passed by the Oireachtas, I was aware that there might be a problem about citizenship. Anybody who read the agreement would have realised that. Now that the problem has become an issue which preoccupies the Government, it would be sensible to work out a consensus. A report will be published this evening which presents a consensus view on private property. By adopting a sensible and mature approach we were able to reach a consensus on that matter. The Labour Party wants to know why we cannot take a similarly sensible approach to the issue of citizenship. Is there some crisis that we do not know about or is it, as many people suspect, that the Government knows immigration is a hot issue in an election and wants to tie us all down by indulging in a bit of immigrant bashing leading up to the local and European elections?