SDLP position: The SDLP and the Government have clashed again over Friday's citizenship referendum.
Party leader Mr Mark Durkan said yesterday the Government had yet to allay nationalist concerns in Northern Ireland about the referendum. Mr Durkan said he had been waiting several weeks for the Government to respond to his party's concerns about the proposed amendment.
"The Taoiseach responded to a letter I sent to him in April. I wrote another letter expressing some outstanding concerns that I had," Mr Durkan said.
"I was assured at meetings I had with the Taoiseach and with junior Minister Brian Lenihan, and through a meeting my colleagues had with the Justice Minister Michael McDowell, that my concerns would be answered.
"I was told that they could be answered satisfactorily and that there was Attorney General's advice to cover the points that I had raised. I still await my reply."
Mr Durkan said advisers to Mr McDowell had indicated they would respond to his concerns in return for his endorsement of a Yes vote on Friday. However, the SDLP leader refused to take a position until he received that reply. "I want to see the reply first before I decide what my response is going to be."
A Government spokeswoman said later it would reply today to the SDLP request for more information.
She confirmed the SDLP had written on April 30th, but said the issues raised had been very technical and the Department of Justice had needed time to consider its response.
The spokeswoman said there had been discussions in the meantime between the Department of Justice and the SDLP, and that Mr Lenihan had also met the party.
Earlier, Mr Durkan said: "I want to ensure that if this proposal is passed and it means citizenship will be something that is a matter for legislation in the Dáil that is something that will always have to be referred back to the people in a referendum and I want to ensure that the Oireachtas will not legislate differently for citizenship in terms of people who are born in the North of Ireland as opposed to those born in the South."
He said the issue of citizenship was of fundamental importance to the Good Friday agreement and to the Constitution. It was the one section of the Constitution that concerned everybody living on the island. "It isn't something that should be changed on a drive-by basis."
He said the referendum, regardless of the result, had inflicted damage on the idea that the Good Friday agreement was sacrosanct. "The DUP have the precedent that they are happy to cite and re-cite about unilateral changes and modifications to the agreement."