Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As a committee, we follow our diaspora very closely. Year after year, the diaspora are very much part of our programme. In our visits abroad, we always ensure we visit some of the diaspora centres. We have been to the Aisling centre in New York and to the emigrant support centres in San Francisco. All of these centres are doing good work and we are proud to be associated with them. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade supports these centres as well as the centres in London.

As the witnesses said, Irish people are travelling to many destinations. We have heard of reports of incidents in Australia where Irish people have run out of money after a month. As some members said, not everybody is lucky when he or she goes abroad. There are issues in regard to people who get into trouble.

We are following immigration reform in the United States very closely as well as the plight of the 50,000 undocumented Irish. I was in Washington recently and held talks with senior politicians in regard to that issue. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, is in the United States at the moment and he has raised this issue also. The work Crosscare is doing is to be commended. We appreciate it and will write to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to support Crosscare's recommendation for a register and to ask it to include extra funding for this because is a resource issue and a cost issue in anything one sets up.

I thank the witnesses for appearing before the committee. It is good to make us aware of the work they do. As Mr. O'Brien said, there are probably people abroad watching these proceedings on television and it is important we remind them that we are thinking of them and that groups like Crosscare are also thinking of them and are providing support to them. We will communicate with the witnesses following our contact with the Department and the Minister. The Minister of State with responsibility for the diaspora, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, will appear before the committee before the end of the year to outline his work and what he plans to do for the diaspora. It is an issue on which we are focused. We will keep in touch with the witnesses. I again commend them on the work they are doing.

We will go into private session. Is that agreed? Agreed.