Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In the wake of the Boston bombings, certain high-ranking politicians in the United States have called for a halt to immigration reform. Is Mr. Burgess concerned that this event could potentially have a substantial negative impact on the plans to legislate for a path to citizenship for undocumented migrants? Mr. Burgess may be aware that an all-party Oireachtas group has been set up to co-ordinate efforts on this issue.

It was established previously and fell by the wayside. Reference was made to the importance of a bipartisan approach to this issue. How important is that when trying to sell the Bill in the US?

I refer to undocumented migrants in Ireland. Does the Department have numbers in this regard? How many undocumented Americans live in Ireland? Would it be helpful if we adopted legislation to address these people?

One of the criticisms is that we have not used positive events such as St. Patrick's Day to open up to many of the people who are key to immigration reform. Some of them would not necessarily be friends of Ireland. How can we use events such as that in the future to bring them closer to the Irish position or to even create an opportunity to explain our position on immigration reform?