The proposed citizenship amendment to the Constitution will make Article 2, which people voted for in 1998, completely redundant, according to Ms Aisling Reidy, director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
She was speaking yesterday at a press conference organised by the Campaign Against the Racist Referendum.
Ms Reidy said that this amendment would completely reverse the basis of Irish citizenship law, which had existed since 1921, and was based on the principles of common law. The same law applied in other common law countries such as the US, Canada, New Zealand, India and Pakistan.
"It is also the traditional republican approach to citizenship, which treats all children as equal at birth," she said.
"This is not a new situation, it is not a loophole. It was also an issue that was spelt out in black and white by the Referendum Commission in 1998, when the Irish people voted for Article 2."
She acknowledged that Ireland is the only country in the EU to grant automatic citizenship to all children born on its territory. This was because we had a common law system, while other EU states, except the UK, had a civil law system.
She said that there was no need for harmonisation of laws in this area.
"In 1993 the EU heads of state and government, including Ireland, made a declaration that laws of citizenship are the sole preserve of member-states," she pointed out.
She said there was no evidence of large numbers of people coming to Ireland to have babies who would obtain Irish citizenship and then leave.
Mr Ritchie Keane, of Communities against Racism, a coalition of community groups on Dublin's northside, described the proposed referendum as "a cynical, shameful and disgusting exercise.That the Government is prepared to play the racist card at election time for electoral gain is both shameful and deceitful," he said.
"Where is the long-promised Immigration and Residency Bill? Why couldn't we have a Green Paper on citizenship as part of a wide and meaningful consultation process?"
Mr Des Bonass, of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, said it was opposed to both the timing and the content of the referendum.
It was designed to boost the Government by appealing to latent instincts of people, he said.