The Government will not consult the Human Rights Commission about its citizenship referendum plans, despite the body's fears that a constitutional change could affect the Good Friday agreement, it has emerged.
However, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr McDowell, will give the commission time to make "observations" about the legislation that will subsequently be needed to regulate the curbs on citizenship rights in the event of the referendum proposal being carried.
Last night the Minister said the proposed referendum would not change the rights granted in the Constitution to people in the Republic and Northern Ireland under the 1998 agreement.
"The simple matter of principle about which this referendum proposal is concerned, namely whether the Oireachtas should have the power to make laws in relation to circumstances in which children born to non-nationals in the island of Ireland will or will not have entitlement to citizenship, is one on which the Government has decided to consult the people and, of itself, does not change the pre-existing laws," he said.
"The content of implementing legislation is a matter on which I will welcome the Human Rights Commission's observations."
His move came after the Commission's head, Dr Maurice Manning, had written to him last Thursday to express "preliminary concerns" about the referendum, including the short period for debate, the possible consequences for race relations and the possibility that it might be inconsistent with the Belfast Agreement.
Replying yesterday, the Minister's private secretary, Mr Dermot Woods, said the accompanying legislation would not be "published unless and until the Government's proposed constitutional amendment has been enacted following a referendum".
Meanwhile, a former US congressman, Mr Bruce Morrison, who won 48,000 green cards for Irish "illegals" in the US in the 1980s, has entered the debate, questioning the Government's approach.
The original decision by the High Courts to offer residency rights to the foreign parents of Irish-born children created "lots of problems" for the Government, he acknowledged, but this was changed by a subsequent Supreme Court ruling.
"How many of them are being removed? Governments often excuse their lack of enforcement of the law by writing new laws that will not be enforced either," he told The Irish Times yesterday.
He said he doubted that the referendum was necessary to protect the integrity of Irish citizenship. "I am not sure what that means. People in the US who can trace a grandfather back to Ireland can qualify for Irish citizenship. What is this really about?" he asked.
"People will use to some extent to their advantage the rules that are in existence in the world. I do not think that you should build a citizen/immigration policy on the cases where people use laws to their advantage.
"Once people have settled here for months or years nobody is going to allow you to remove them. Deterrence is the key. The Irish immigration system is hopelessly inefficient.
"Should asylum-seekers be allowed to work? Many of these people are capable of supporting themselves, rather than needing public support. I think that that is perverse," said Mr Morrison.
Meanwhile, the Government has asked the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Keane, to nominate a judge to serve as the head of the Referendum Commission for the campaign.
The body will be formally reactivated once the legislation necessary to hold a referendum is passed by the Oireachtas at the end of the month, although this will give little more than six weeks before the June 11th referendum.