Citizenship debate: The Labour president and spokesman on foreign affairs, Mr Michael D. Higgins, accused the Government of abusing the terms of the Good Friday Agreement by holding the citizenship referendum in June.
Mr Higgins described as "cynical" the proposal to hold it on the same day as the local and European elections.
"The urge to exploit the politics of fear is shameful. It is to distract attention from Government failure and arrogance at international, national and local level. The proposal involves taking the Good Friday Agreement, supported by over 90 per cent of the Irish people North and South, and making it a political football so as to exploit the politics of fear."
He said the issue "was not regarded as sufficiently important to be referred to the All-Party Committee on the Constitution, to be the subject of a Green Paper, to be the subject of an adequate Dáil debate, to be something upon which the public and their representatives might make submissions and observations.
"Neither has the problem, to which it is purported to be addressed, been described, quantified or analysed. No attempt has been made to reconcile glaring inconsistencies in statistics. No attempt has been made to offer a case that would be of such significance that it requires amendment of the Constitution."
Labour's outgoing MEP and Dublin candidate, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, accused the Government of executing a "tawdry election stunt" by holding the citizenship referendum on the same day as the local and European elections.
Labour's other candidate in Dublin, Ms Ivana Bacik, said the referendum was unnecessary and cynical and the Government had never introduced a coherent and comprehensive immigration policy.
The candidate in the East constituency, Mr Peter Cassells, said Ireland was at a crossroads in its relationship with other EU states. The time had come to end the "Boston or Berlin" debate by renewing Ireland's commitment to the European model of social development.
Senator Brendan Ryan, a candidate in the South constituency, claimed that Fianna Fáil's MEPs had established themselves among "the supreme defenders of environmental abuse" in the European Parliament.
The candidate in the North-West, Mr Hughie Baxter, said the lack of infrastructure and job creation in the region arose because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael took their support for granted in the constituency. Corruption was a hindrance to development.