Madam, - The Government has now announced the date for a referendum which proposes to delete birth right citizenship from the constitution.
As a matter of principle I am opposed to this change and will vote to maintain the status quo.
The existing provision is one we share with the US - the country with the most significant immigrant population in the developed world.
It is a core value which speaks volumes about who we are. In our current economic circumstances, where we depend on immigrants to sustain growth, an appropriately inclusive policy on citizenship underlines the notion that those who contribute, and their children born in the State, should be free to be part of the Irish family. Such abuse as there may be of the provision is of little consequence and is not reason enough to change the constitution.
I believe that the Government and Michael McDowell in particular are behaving opportunistically and cynically in proposing a fundamental change to the Constitution to coincide with local and European elections.
The need for the referendum is based on an alleged plea by doctors who run maternity hospitals saying they are overwhelmed by births to non-national mothers. The doctors deny the plea was ever made.
The proposed referendum was not in the FF/PD Programme for Government even though the issue surrounding births in Ireland to foreign nationals was well known at the time of its negotiation.
The people's Constitution is as close as sacred as one can get in the secular world. It should be changed only in extremis and after careful national debate. I am appalled by the proposed change but more importantly by its devious motivation. - Yours, etc.,
COLM Mac EOCHAIDH, Fownes Street Upper, Dublin 2.
Madam, - I think that there is going to be a lot of justified anger at the Government's cynical decision to hold what is in effect a race referendum together with the Euro and local elections on June 11th.
Fianna Fáil Deputy Conor Lenihan pretty well gave away the true agenda behind this stunt last night (April 6th) on RTÉ's Tonight radio programme, when he contrasted the Irish Times PC liberal agenda with the "genuine concerns" that he hears expressed on the doorsteps.
For "genuine concerns" read ignorant racist nonsense. There are no genuine concerns other than urban myths about preferential treatment for immigrants, which this Government has done nothing to dispel and which are allowed to percolate through a very prejudiced population.
Current levels of "abuse" of the system do not and should not matter. Tax evasion, corruption and privatisation should and do matter. Guess which issues Fianna Fáil and the PDs would most like us to discuss this June. - Yours, etc.,
RICHARD BARRETT, Upper Rathmines Road, Dublin 6.