News round-up: The Labour Party's national executive council has strongly encouraged the Parliamentary Labour Party to openly oppose the proposed citizenship referendum.
Up to a dozen members of the party's national executive council demanded that Labour spearhead the No campaign during a joint meeting last Friday with TDs, senators and one MEP.
The strong stand adopted by the NEC members who spoke and by a number of parliamentary figures, including Senator Brendan Ryan, encouraged other TDs and senators to speak in favour of opposing it.
"Some of the PLP people were windy about it earlier, because they know that it is popular in constituencies, but they got onside when they heard the executive people speak up," one senior Labour figure privately told The Irish Times.
However, the Labour leader Mr Pat Rabbitte's desire to ensure that the party's national conference in Dublin at the weekend was not turned into "one just about immigration" was accepted by the party. Defending his decision not to declare Labour's stand on the referendum during the conference, Mr Rabbitte said Fianna Fail "was trying to create a trap" for him.
"They want this to be the dominant story coming out of the party conference. I'll make our position very clear when I speak to the Dáil on Wednesday," he said.
Former deputy party leader, Mr Brendan Howlin said Labour wanted to keep the focus on the legislation necessary to hold the referendum for as long as possible in a bid to frustrate the Government.
Addressing delegates on Saturday, Mr Rabbitte accused the Government of exploiting immigration "to shore up" Fianna Fáil's vote in the June elections.
Meanwhile, a €1,000 "baby bond" State investment fund for each newborn child proposed by Mr Rabbitte would cost €60 million annually, it has emerged. The bill is one-tenth of the Exchequer's bill from the Special Savings Investment Accounts, which last year cost the State €531 million.
Under the plan, which formed the central element of Mr Rabbitte's Saturday night conference speech, the fund would be run by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA). Though families would be able to make extra contributions to the fund, they would not be tax deductible, nor would they be matched by extra State contributions.
Acknowledging that the "baby bond" was "a small step", Mr Rabbitte said it would help to give poorer children a better start and to make Irish society more equal. "We still live in a country where one's chances in life are too much the result of class background and inheritance. We fool ourselves if we think or believe otherwise," he told delegates.
However, the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, said the "baby bond" proposal was the only "positive" element in Mr Rabbitte's speech.
"If that is the best that they can do they are going to be in Opposition for a good while longer," he told RTÉ's Week in Politics programme last night.
Managed by the NTMA until the child is 18, the State's contribution could be worth €2,000 in today's terms at maturity, a Labour official told The Irish Times.
