Referendum decision will be final - McDowell

The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has inisted he will accept the public's decision in the upcoming citizenship referendum as final.

Mr McDowell said this morning the Government had no intention of holding a second vote, as they did in the case of the Nice Treaty, which was initially rejected and subsequently passed.

"If the people decide that they really do want to have automatic citizenship in every circumstance, regardless of whether you have no connection with Ireland as a political or a cultural community, if the people want that, and if they vote that way on June 11th, then I'll accept that," he told RTÉ Radio.

He also defended himself against accusations of racism over his immigration policy. He said he was accused by Opposition politicians in the Dáil yesterday evening of having "an underlying policy of keeping Africans out of Ireland" and of having a "fundamental principle" of keeping "people with black skin" from living here.

"These are just offensive and untrue allegations, but they were thrown about like snuff at a wake," he said.

Mr McDowell said he had made controlling immigration a central aim when he took office in 2002, as it was such a drain on resources.

Last year, €120 million of the Department of Justice budget was spent on asylum seekers, while the total State spending was estimated at around €340 million, he said. Of the 600 civil servants detailed to work in immigration, over 400 are directly responsible for processing asylum-seekers.

"This is a very serious drain on the administrative capacity of my Department. Typically 90 per cent of the asylum claims are abandoned or found not to be valid," he said.

In 2002, there were around 12,000 asylum-seekers each year. "I decided that I would tighten up the law and end what were manifest abuses of the system. The politically correct in society try to pretend it isn't so, but the reality is the great majority of asylum-seeking is in fact economic migrancy."

"There are a group of people in Irish society who constantly try to minimise the problem . . . but €340 million in State resources is a lot of money. Imagine what I or other ministers could do with that money?" he asked.

Mr McDowell said he hoped to tighten up the laws so that less people apply fraudulently for asylum and then have to be deported. He described the deportation process as "heartrending" for all involved.

"If anybody thinks I take pleasure in rounding up families and putting them onto planes surrounded by gardaí and sending them back, I don't. I have to do it to maintain the integrity of our immigration law," Mr McDowell insisted. "If I don't do [it], I believe this country will fall into the hands of racist politicians."

Mr McDowell pointed out that Nigerians could arrive in Britain as tourists, due to the historic links between the two countries, and then arrive in Ireland and apply for asylum. He said between 30 and 40 per cent of all applications for asylum in Ireland were by Nigerians, whereas in Britain, Nigerians accounted for a "tiny fraction".

According to Department of Justice figures, around a third of all applications here were not followed up on, the Minister said. Due to the citizenship laws, "non-nationals are just coming here and having children and not bothering with the whole asylum process," he said.

He repeated his claim of yesterday that "at least 40 to 50 per cent" of all non-EU nationals who give birth in Ireland are motivated by a desire to obtain Irish citizenship for their children.