Martin predictsYes vote victory

THE Government remains convinced it will record a comprehensive victory in the citizenship referendum despite the latest opinion poll showing substantial opposition to the proposed change.

Health Minister Micheál Martin yesterday said the next month will give the Yes campaign ample time to tackle any confusion about the referendum proposal and ensure a strong Yes vote on June 11.

He was responding to the Irish Examiner/Prime Time opinion poll which found 44% of people believe a child, who does not have a parent who is an Irish citizen, should not be entitled to Irish citizenship automatically, while 41% believe they should. Some 15% of people remain undecided.

Mr Martin said the poll would not have measured the full impact of the Chen case, where a court ruled a Chinese woman who travelled to Belfast to give birth had the right to live in Britain by virtue of having an Irish-born child.

“The opinion delivered in the Chen case before the highest court in Europe this week has been decisive in drawing public attention to how the loophole in our citizenship law has been used to circumvent immigration controls in other EU states.

“There is now no doubt at all as to the ‘why?’ and ‘why now?’ questions relating to the referendum,” Mr Martin said.

NUI law lecturer Donncha O’Connell said the results of the poll were extremely tight. He pointed out that since the question asked in the Irish Examiner poll was not the same as the one that will appear on the ballot papers on June 10, the margin would probably be even tighter on the day.

Mr O’Connell, speaking at an Integrating Ireland Conference in Dublin yesterday, said the No camp needed to win over the large number of still undecided people by addressing the substantive issues and the referendum timing.

Chairperson of the Immigrant Council of Ireland Sr Stanislaus Kennedy said there is a lot of confusion about the poll and people don’t understand why the Government is holding it or rushing ahead with it.

“We are concerned, along with many others, that if this referendum is passed, it will create two classes of children in Ireland. That is why we are calling for a No vote,” she said.

Labour Party spokesman on justice Deputy Joe Costello said it was clear from a number of opinion polls and from the growing number of organisations coming out against it, that the Government’s constitutional amendment on citizenship could be defeated on June 11.

“This amendment is being placed before the people at a time when there has been a huge decrease in the number of asylum seekers. The number of applications received in the first three months of this year, at 1,256, is probably the lowest since 1997,” he added.