Racists should vote No to the upcoming citizenship referendum because there is "nothing racist about this proposal", the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has claimed in a stormy Dáil debate.
The two-day special debate on the proposal to remove the automatic entitlement to Irish citizenship purely on grounds of birth on the island developed yesterday into a vicious trading of insults between the Minister for Justice and the Opposition.
Mr McDowell, who was repeatedly heckled and interrupted during his speech, insisted he had compiled sufficient information to provide "clear and incontrovertible evidence" that a disproportionate number of non-national mothers "are presenting to maternity hospitals at a late stage of pregnancy".
He had no practical way of stopping that type of "maternity holiday. I have been criticised for using the expression 'citizenship tourism', but that is precisely what we are faced with," he said.
The Minister included maternity figures which showed that the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street, Dublin, had 163 non-EU nationals who arrived in the late stages of pregnancy, while the Rotunda had 269 such cases. He insisted that there was "no alternative" but to deal with the issue through the Constitution.
During an increasingly hostile debate there were demands that the Minister withdraw remarks about the President and the presidential election.
Labour's foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Michael D. Higgins, expressed his outrage that the Minister would refer to the office of president or to the incumbent, given that it was long-standing convention of the House that deputies should not make reference to either.
Mr McDowell had said there was a real doubt about there being a presidential election, because there was "no indication of any worthwhile opposing candidate". Mr Higgins retorted, "What does the Minister mean by that? There was a time when the PDs were able to get candidates."
The Minister said there was potential to "skew the debate in a most unfair fashion" because the incumbent would be constrained by office "on matters of political controversy while her opponents would be as free to shout as long and loud as they liked on one or other side of the issue".
The Labour TD, a potential presidential candidate, said, "The Minister has no right to comment on the behaviour of the President in office or whether she should declare herself a candidate."
Mr McDowell: "I made no comment on the behaviour of the President." Mr Higgins: "At least I stand over what I say. The Minister does not remember what he says." Mr McDowell accused the Opposition of being "pathetic", "petulant", while the Labour party whip, Mr Emmet Stagg, claimed the Minister had a "unique record of being wrong on constitutional matters", to which Mr McDowell said Deputy Stagg "has a unique combination of nastiness and unruliness".
The Minister said the proposal had been criticised as racist, but it was "scaremongering" and "wide of the mark" to say that holding the referendum on the same day as the local and European elections would bring out racist elements in the electorate. Mr McDowell introduced the 27th Amendment to the Constitution Bill, insisting it was a "very simple" proposal.
When he said it was "important on occasion to remind Members who talk about citizenship that loyalty to this State, which has only one army, is a fundamental political duty of all citizens", Mr Higgins retorted: "Tell that to the tax exiles as well."
Mr McDowell said it was the "almost universal understanding of those who are active in the field of migration, and in the field of maternity services in Ireland, that citizenship is a significant pull factor inducing people to come to Ireland to have children here."
