Martin warned of citizenship scam in 2002

MICHEÁL MARTIN was warned by a leading maternity doctor that the majority of heavily pregnant Nigerian women arriving in Ireland were paying €7,500 to become citizenship tourists.

The health minister was alerted to the operation of the scam by a consultant at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin in September 2002, around the time when Justice Minister Michael McDowell met with the heads of Dublin's three main maternity hospitals to discuss the non-nationals problem. The disclosure from the front-line medical practitioner supports the Minister for Justice's justification for the citizenship referendum because the nationality law is being abused.

Mr McDowell claimed yesterday that up to half of non-EU nationals giving birth in this country do it to gain Irish citizenship for their children.

Nigerians make up the largest group of non-EU national mothers giving birth in the country.

Last year 1,515 Nigerians gave birth in the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street and the Rotunda Hospital alone.

The Irish Examiner understands that in his letter to Mr Martin, the Rotunda consultant expressed serious concerns about the pressures placed on the hospital system by the dramatic increase in the number of deliveries by non-nationals.

While also drawing the minister's attention to the dangers of mothers arriving late in pregnancy with no medical case histories, the consultant said he was aware that Nigerians in particular were abusing the rules in this country. "It is common knowledge now that most of the Nigerian women who arrive in the later stages of pregnancy have paid in the order of £5,000 to some agency for the information which allows them to use our health system," he wrote.

But opposition parties will question what the minister did with the information upon receiving it almost two years ago.

Mr Martin referred to the consultant's letter during his contribution to the debate on the citizenship referendum in the Dáil on Wednesday when he cited the case of a quintuplet pregnancy, where the mother made a long journey to Ireland and arrived 36 hours before giving birth in a premature labour situation.

Mr McDowell acknowledged last night that the masters of the maternity hospitals had not asked him to change the Constitution, but he insisted they had asked him to tighten immigration controls.

Also yesterday, Fianna Fáil backbench TD Barry Andrews questioned the urgency of pressing ahead with the referendum in June.