The citizenship referendum was a polite way for the Government to play the race card in the elections to detract from its own unpopularity, barrister Mr Colm MacEochaidh claimed yesterday.
Mr MacEochaidh, who ran for Fine Gael in the 2002 general election, and the Green Party's Mr Ciaran Cuffe TD yesterday campaigned against the referendum under a "Just Citizenship" banner. Mr MacEochaidh said: "I do not think the proposal itself is racist, but the motivation behind this unnecessary amendment is a polite way for the Government to play the race card to distract from its own unpopularity and other issues in the elections."
Asked if he was now at odds with FG, which is in favour of the referendum, Mr MacEochaidh said: "No, the party said it was not going to campaign in the referendum. In the Dáil, FG opposed the holding of the referendum. The position now is that FG is not campaigning, but is technically in favour."
For any child granted Irish citizenship to be accepted in any other EU country, it has to be proven that he or she will not need medical insurance, and will not be a burden on the country."He said if there was any abuse of the citizenship law then Article 9 of the Constitution covered this.
Mr MacEochaidh unsuccessfully sought the FG European election nomination in Dublin, and is Mr Gay Mitchell's nominated replacement if he is elected.
On Saturday, the Taoiseach accused opponents of the amendment of trying to confuse the public by discussing "unrelated issues".
The question before the people was "a simple one," he said: Should anyone born here have citizenship conferred automatically, regardless of how long their parents had been in Ireland? Or should Irish citizenship be valued more highly by awarding it automatically at birth only to those whose parents had a "real link" with the country? Those opposing the referendum had failed to put forward a convincing argument as to why the current situation should be left unchanged, he said.
Meanwhile, Labour's justice spokesman, Mr Joe Costello, has called on the Minister for Justice to examine the options for revoking Irish passports granted to non-nationals under the "passports for investment" scheme, where the recipients were wanted for criminal offences abroad.