Brendan Ryan (Labour)

The Taoiseach made this man Chairman of an Oireachtas committee. Whatever the innocence of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform — God help me, after all the years I do not believe he is intent on using race — not for the first time since going into Government with Fianna Fáil, the Progressive Democrats has been conned into a position which it must now defend. If we have a referendum on such a difficult and complex topic as citizenship, in the middle of two elections, then immigrants, immigration and race will be covertly and overtly an issue in those elections.

We cannot be sure about intent in these matters. I cannot read other people's minds. However, I can be sure that either this Government is profoundly inept or it has chosen to go ahead with this in the certain knowledge that what I have foretold will happen. If either of those is the option, we then return to what I said at the outset, with the rational course being to first agree that we have a problem. There is no need for a referendum to be announced. That was one of the Minister's more misleading remarks. One simply quantifies the problem. That is possible. One can keep proper records, assemble the information and then invite the leaders of the various parties in the Oireachtas to look at the information and the trend and to consider what can be done. That is what we did regarding the issue of private property. It is fascinating that on a far less emotional and less politically sensitive issue, namely property rights, we got an Oireachtas committee to review the matter. We will shortly get a report on that issue. Yet this is a manifestly more sensitive issue, one more widely open to distortion, abuse, misrepresentation and the use of race — for those few in politics who wish to so use it as a political issue.

Since the issue arose, the question unanswered by the Government is what happened between 17 February and 10 March to persuade the Government that something that was not apparently being thought about on 17 February became a critical and urgent issue on 10 March. If there is evidence that it suddenly became critical, let us have it. If there is a case that suddenly became critical, let us have it. If neither of those exists, we must conclude that it was deemed to be politically expedient, meaning useful to Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, to hold the referendum on the same day as the local and European elections. If that is the decision, that is bringing race into our elections and the Government should be ashamed of itself.