Cowen hits back at racist referendum claims

Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowan said today it was absurd to claim that citizenship referendum proposals were racist.

At a conference to outline the case in favour of the referendum, he said the opposition party was the only side who had employed the language of race.

“The proposal being put before the people is a common sense one.

"It is about sensibly taking account of the fact that Ireland alone is the only country in the European Union that grants an automatic right to citizenship at birth irrespective of whether or not the parents actually have any connection with the country.”

Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Coughlan, said a 'yes' vote would end the incentive for pregnant women to put themselves and their unborn children at risk by travelling here from abroad just before birth.

She added that people who would no longer acquire Irish citizenship at birth would be able to apply for it after a number of years residency in Ireland.

She said that one third of non-national mothers were coming here to obtain citizenship status. She said the Government was not adopting the racist approach alleged by the opposition but it was simply dealing with the facts of the situation.