Ireland's citizenship system was being "rampantly abused", the Taoiseach insisted as Labour questioned the extent of the crisis that had prompted the Government's decision to hold a referendum to restrict citizenship.
During leaders' questions Mr Ahern reiterated that no decision had been made on the date for the referendum, but he said it did not matter if it was "a few, a few hundred or a few thousand", there were people coming from outside the EU solely for the purposes of getting Irish citizenship and then leaving as quickly as they came.
There was rampant abuse when 60 per cent of all female asylum-seekers were pregnant when they made their applications. "Whether the number is huge or small is unimportant, since the loophole should not exist," he said.
The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, claimed that the Minister for Justice, who announced the referendum, seemed intent on introducing a law "to create three categories of citizen".
He added that in parliamentary questions neither the Minister for Health nor for Justice could give the figures for the contribution non-nationals were making to the "problem". The only figures he could find in terms of pressure on maternity hospitals was that the number of births in Dublin's hospitals in 1980 was 80,000 and 55,000 in 2003.
How many of the births were for the 48,000 non-nationals whom the Tánaiste had approved work permits for, and how many were "tourists" as had been claimed?
Mr Ahern said the Government "considers it appropriate that Irish citizenship for a child born to non-national parents should not derive solely from the circumstances of birth in Ireland and that there should be a stronger connection with Ireland on the part of at least one of the parents for the privilege of Irish citizenship to be available to their children born here".
He said the referendum would remove the pressures put on expectant mothers "either by their own ambitions for their children or by those of their partners, which encourage them to put their lives at risk". Women were arriving in Ireland close to the end of their pregnancy, putting their health and that of their unborn child at risk.
Mr Rabbitte asked if the Taoiseach planned to hold the referendum during the "frenzy" of the local and European elections. He reiterated his claim that Fianna Fáil had been advised by an "American guru" that immigration was the main election issue, which the Taoiseach denied.
Mr Rabbitte said the Taoiseach had written to the former Labour leader, Mr Ruairí Quinn, in 1998 when he questioned citizenship implications under the Belfast Agreement. The Taoiseach had replied then that the peace process took precedence.
Mr Ahern said: "I did not visualise in 1998 that Russians, Moldovans and Ukrainians would be coming to this country for two or three weeks simply for the benefit of Irish citizenship".
