Mr. Niall Burgess:

The other factor goes back to the question of whose interests are at stake here. Is this about Irish immigrants, Mexican immigrants or something else? This is being carefully crafted as a Bill which deals with the United States own interests and it is also carefully balanced to deal with those who are concerned that immigration and border controls have been too lax for too long. For example, the Bill provides for 3,500 additional customs and border patrol agents and allows for a significant tightening up of border security.

There is something in the Bill for sceptics of immigration reform, and it responds to a very significant demand from US business for new labour flows into the US, and that is in the agricultural sector and also the high-tech sector, where there is a demand to bring in new talent from overseas. There is a carefully crafted balance in the Bill.

The implementation of the Bill is staggered, and Deputy Durkan referred to this. The route to legal status for those who are undocumented in the US is a long one. They would be entitled to apply for provisional status, initially. That would allow them to leave the US and come back. After a five or six year period they would be entitled to apply again, and after ten years they would be entitled to apply for a green card. After three years that green card would provide a route to citizenship. That is the path that would face undocumented Irish in the US. They would have to satisfy certain background checks and pay any taxes that would be owed. It is staggered over a period of time and that addresses some of the concerns that will be raised in both the Senate and the House of Representatives around not rewarding those who have broken the law. The fact that there is a significant business lobby in support of this is a good sign.

Once the Bill is in the public domain all sorts of issues will arise. There is considerable reticence in the House of Representatives and Senate around immigration reform. Significant voices are calling for a piecemeal approach rather than one major approach to immigration reform. There are those, particularly on the Republican side, who would like to see border controls tightened up before a route to citizenship was provided for those who were undocumented in the US. There are those in the business lobby who feel that their needs are insufficiently met. There are those who have raised child protection issues for undocumented parents facing deportation and the fact that this is not included in the Bill. There are those, US Senator Rand Paul for example, who have raised the Boston bombings issue and the fact that the two people involved in that were illegal immigrants. He has called for a delay so that any possible implications for the new Bill arising from the Boston bombing experience are taken account of. All of these issues will undoubtedly surface in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

On the actual process that we anticipate, the Bill has had preliminary hearings. It will have its first mark-up examination by the Senate judiciary committee tomorrow. The Senate majority leader Senator Harry Reid has signalled his intention to bring it to the floor of the Senate in June. We expect that there will also be House of Representatives proposals. They will certainly be different from the proposals in the Senate and if all proceeds in a relatively smooth way we expect a Senate-House conference committee in late summer or early autumn. If that were approved it would probably still be close to the middle of next year by the time the regulations are in place and the new immigration schemes can be implemented.

The provision for up to 10,500 E3 visas for immigrants from Ireland is tucked away. It is not very prominent in the Bill. There are a number of additional elements and that is only one of very many. It is not highlighted or underlined in the Bill, but there is considerable support for it. Much of the work the Taoiseach and Tánaiste have been doing has been to try to ensure quiet support for this so that if and when it is raised on the floor of the House of Representatives or Senate, there will be those who stand by it and we will retain it in the Bill.

I do not have figures for the numbers of undocumented or of US citizens in Ireland, but the E3 visa scheme is designed as a reciprocal one in the same way as the Australian scheme is reciprocal. A similar path to work experience in Ireland for US citizens would be opened up in return. That is a very important part of the presentation of this when the time comes.

St. Patrick's Day was mentioned. In a way this moves forward to the discussion we are about to have. The planning of the St. Patrick's Day programmes is undertaken months ahead of the St. Patrick's Day visits and they are planned to maximise the opportunities for lobbying and political support, for example, when the Tánaiste was in Atlanta he had a number of meetings that he probably could not have had in Washington around the immigration Bill to secure support for it and that was the same for Ministers and Government representatives across the US.