Non-EU mothers ‘seeking passports’

HALF of non-EU mothers giving birth at the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) are seeking passports for their children, the hospital’s master said yesterday.

Dr Declan Keane, who also predicted up to 2,000 non-nationals will give birth at the Holles Street hospital this year, wrote to the Government a year ago warning of the increase in “citizenship tourism” or births to mothers seeking passports for their children.

His correspondence, published in yesterday’s Irish Examiner, received predictably mixed reactions from the Yes and No camps in the forthcoming citizenship referendum.