Seanad Report: Government and opposition members expressed concern about the possibility of the "race card" being used by some election candidates if the proposed referendum on the restricting of citizenship for children born to non-nationals here was to be held at the same time as the European and the local elections. Jimmy Walsh reports.
Mr John Minihan (PD) warned that if the justification and the need for this referendum were not fully explained, we would be in danger of revisiting the scandalous racist comments that surfaced during the last general election.
Mr Terry Leyden (FF) said he had told the Minister for Justice it would be wrong to hold the referendum on June 11th because it would confuse the issue with the elections. He said further confusion would be caused in terms of electronic voting.
Mr David Norris (Ind) said he had consistently supported the rights of asylum-seekers, but he did not think it was a good human thing for people to put their unborn children at risk by flying into this country when they were almost in labour.
Mr Brendan Ryan (Labour) said he wondered if there was a coincidence of timing between the proposed referendum and the elections. If there was a connection it would be a desperately cynical thing for the Government to do. Whatever problem was said to exist, it should be addressed calmly and dispassionately.
The Leader of the House, Mrs Mary O'Rourke, said the Minister for Justice did not appear to say that the referendum would be coupled with the elections. Mr Minihan had made a passionate appeal about not using it as a race card that was coupled with the elections. But that would be thrown to the wind if the referendum was held on June 11th. "People would just get inflamed with their ambitions for being elected."