The Department of Foreign Affairs is not capable of keeping track of the number of passports it issues to people of Irish descent in Irish embassies abroad, according to Labour justice spokesperson Mr Joe Costello.
Mr Costello said the response from the Minister for Foreign Affairs to a question put down by the Labour Party last month asking about the number of passports issued by Irish embassies to persons qualifying via Irish descent, is "inadequate, and in the climate of the current debate on citizenship and the upcoming referendum, deeply suspicious".
The Minister's reply indicated the system does not produce information sought by Mr Costello.
"It defies credibility that such information is not readily available, and if the Minister's response is true, it is scandalous that the Department of Foreign Affairs is not capable of keeping track of the number of passports it issues to people of Irish decent, aside from visitors who may have lost passports, in our embassies abroad.
"That they do not keep track of passports given to people of Irish decent, yet are keen to eliminate automatic citizenship rights from children born here, merely gives further concern about the real motivation for this referendum," said Mr Costello.
In response, the Department of Foreign said the passport-issuing system. was developed 12 years ago and does not have the capacity to produce reports of the type requested by Ms Burton.
It said the new passport issuing system, which will be operational in the autumn, will have a much greater capacity to produce management-information.