Minister warns of ‘legal flak’

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell refuses to take it for granted that the Government’s citizenship referendum will be carried on June 11.

He was responding to the latest Irish Times/TNS MRBI opinion poll showing a clear majority will vote in favour of the proposal to restrict automatic right to Irish citizenship.

Mr McDowell said he was gratified the vast majority of people would see the Government’s position as fair, generous, reasonable and proportionate.

Worried that there might be some confusion, he said the issues were simple and should not be confused by “legal flak”.

“What we are dealing with here is whether parliament should or should not have any competence to deal with this area to prevent abuse of citizenship,” he said.

In an attack on the Labour and Sinn Féin leaderships’ decision to oppose the referendum, Mr McDowell said he believed their stance was ideologically motivated.

He was speaking prior to the publication of today’s Irish Examiner/Questions & Answers poll.