Government urged not to hold June referendum

The Government has been urged not to hold a constitutional referendum to remove the automatic right to Irish citizenship from children born to non-nationals on the same day as the local and European elections in June.

In the Dáil this morning Fine Gael  leader, Mr Enda Kenny, called on the Government to establish an all-party committee on the Constitution to study the issue.

Decoupling the referendum from the June 11th votes was also called for by the Labour Party. Opposition parties said it was unhelpful that the Minister did not have a draft of his proposals.

Earlier today the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell,  said he did not consider the issue a difficult one and did not " think it requires a very lengthy period of time to reflect on it."

While the Government has not yet confirmed a date for the referendum, June is seen as likely because Mr McDowell said calling the people to the polls only on the referendum issue "was wasteful of public resources", and it was unclear whether there would be a presidential election in the autumn.

Asked on RTÉ radio why a referendum was required, the Minister said a Supreme Court in January last year did not "deal with the problem, it changes the problem."

He said the number of asylum seekers had dropped significantly since then. However, "there is a significant increase in the number of others coming into Ireland who not claiming asylum - coming here motivated by the fact that there child would be an Irish citizen if born in Ireland."

Mr McDowell added that when he used the term non-national "it means a person who is not a national of Ireland, includes EU citizens."

He said the referendum aimed to bring the State into line with other EU states as Ireland is the only EU member state to give citizenship entitlements through birth within the territory.

The Minister is proposing new legislation if the referendum is carried which will require the non-national parent of an Irish-born child to be legally resident in the State for a minimum of three years before the child would be entitled to citizenship.

According to Mr McDowell calling the referendum followed a meeting with the masters of the three Dublin maternity hospitals who pleaded with him to change the law due to the rise in the number of non-nationals' pregnancies.

This view was described as an "exaggeration" by Dr Michael Geary Master of the Rotunda Hospital.

He said the issue was one of safety for the maternity hospitals. "In last 12 to 18 months there have been two to three near-miss infant mortalities of women travelling in labour very late in the day.

"Fifteen per cent of non-nationals have turned in labour and a further 15 per cent turn up within days of when they are due."

Dr Geary said the rise in births to non-nationals "should not be the sole justification, the sole lever to have a constitutional referendum."

Presenting at maternity units in labour is "a death waiting to happen. There are people getting on planes in the UK and France travelling in labour and that is very, very dangerous."