‘Rushed referendum campaign underrates voters’

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell and his government have underestimated the public by rushing a referendum campaign on citizenship, Sinn Féin claimed yesterday.

The party’s European Parliament candidate in Dublin, Mary Lou McDonald, accused the Government of resorting to scaremongering in the campaign to persuade voters in the referendum on June 11 to deny children born in Ireland to non-nationals the right to Irish citizenship.

“I believe they have vastly underrated people’s ability to be rational and thoughtful,” she said.