The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has said that newly-released documents back up his previous claim that the masters of the three Dublin hospitals had made "a strong plea" to him to take action to stem the numbers of non-Irish mothers giving birth here.
It has also emerged that a lobbyist for one of the three hospitals approached the Department of Justice last February and asked about what measures were being planned in relation to the matter.
The documents indicate that the masters had written to the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, as early as October 2002 about their concerns regarding non-national births, and at a meeting the following August they are reported to have sought a tightening of immigration controls.
Mr McDowell has said that while he has been accused of lying, the documents proved he had been correct in previous statements when he said the masters had not come to him seeking additional resources.
"I gave a fair description to the public that they made a strong plea to me to do something," he told The Irish Times.
"Pat Rabbitte told the Labour conference at the weekend that I was either fibbing or lying and that was exaggerating. There is no doubt that I wasn't."
According to the documents, on October 16th, 2002 the Master of the Coombe, Dr Sean Daly, wrote to Mr Martin, saying that while he felt the hospital should have a "very 'open door' policy" a number of incidents occurred, including aggressive behaviour on the part of non-national patients, which "have been very difficult for staff to deal with".
Two days later Dr Daly, and the Master of the Rotunda, Dr Michael Geary, met the Minister for Justice and senior officials at Mr McDowell's office.
According to an internal Department note of the meeting, Dr Daly said that up to 28 per cent of births were to non-nationals.
"Dr Geary said the high rate of infectious diseases among these groups has huge cost implications for the maternity hospitals," the note says. "He went on to say that . . . it was surprising that there had not been a major catastrophe within the maternity services as yet." The minister told the masters that the "situation had become untenable and that it was fuelling racist thinking among the indigenous population" and the Government was also considering a number of options to act "decisively".
In January 2003, the masters of the Coombe, Rotunda and Holles Street wrote to Mr Martin again, highlighting the fact that the Department of Social Welfare was paying women maternity benefits at 32 weeks, which allowed them to relocate to Dublin where they were presenting to the hospitals "having received no antenatal care".
A note, taken by a senior immigration official, taken at a meeting of Joint Hospitals Committee of the three hospitals, which he attended, details figures that non-national births had continued to rise with 30 per cent of babies born in the Rotunda to non-national parents, and that numbers were now sufficient to warrant a fourth maternity hospital.
"The main concerns expressed by both masters and management of the hospitals is how pregnant women can, with apparent ease, travel to Ireland - ostensibly for a week's holiday - during which time they had their children and return home."
The problems "flow directly from immigration control issues" the committee said.
Meanwhile senior Government sources have indicated that a lobbyist for one of the three Dublin maternity hospitals made an informal approach to the Minister for Justice, seeking information about his Department's plans to deal with non-national birth rates. Mr McDowell informed the lobbyist that the Government was considering a referendum on citizenship rights