Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

When the Minister dealt with the issues in legislation, he reduced the number of people who come here to try to abuse the system. That is borne out by the figures. I believe that was the way to go first. The Minister could have referred the matter to the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution. I am a member of that committee, which did a great deal of work on the property issue. We managed to reach consensus even though opinion came from across the spectrum, from Sinn Féin, the Green Party, the Labour Party, the PDs and Fianna Fáil; we came up with very good cross-party proposals. The Minister took a similar approach to the immigration legislation and while I accept the Labour Party criticised it, there was a substantial consultation process with all parties and we proposed amendments to the Bill. That has not been the case with this Bill. Perhaps if there had been cross-party consultation on the issue of citizenship, the matter could have been dealt with in legislation. When the all-party committee considered the housing issue, it was decided that a referendum was not required.