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.