Minister plays politics with immigrant births

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell, one of the most right-wing politicians that Ireland has ever seen, has accused other political parties of being similar to the Nazis.

Yet Mr McDowell himself is clearly attempting to stir up racial tensions in the run-up to the June elections with his decision to hold a referendum to deny citizenship to children born in Ireland to non-national parents. This is a cynical and extremely dangerous, but well planned, strategy by Mr McDowell and his PD and FF colleagues to play the race card in order to win votes.

The idea, as with the unsubstantiated attacks on Sinn Féin, is to divert public attention away from the crisis in the health service, broken election promises, the increasing gap between rich and poor and the allegations of political corruption at the Mahon Tribunal.