Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

No, I am referring to some of them. When they write that I am a Nazi, a fascist or this, that or the other, it is puerile. I am a liberal and a republican politician. I have stood up for liberal values more coherently than most of them. They like to go back to some kind of student, undergraduate mental approach to politics, where they liken me to some kind of fascist person. They should show me anything I have done that is fascist.

I noted recently that Vincent Browne announced that the referendum on citizenship was a racist referendum. How foolish can anybody be? How utterly devoid of common sense could any commentary be that would describe as racist a referendum on the question that Ireland should bring its citizenship laws into line with those of other countries in the European Union? This is described as racism in Ireland. These are the people who fill our newspapers.

We should not be distracted by columnists who normally get things wrong. With regard to the referendum, I remember one contributor to The Irish Times announcing——