Ms Celine Kennelly:

It was a double whammy of fear of the Trump Administration and the impact of the rhetoric coming from that administration, which was then exacerbated by Covid. As all of my colleagues have referenced in the context of access to vaccines and information, there was a heightened level of fear. The individual centres and the Coalition of Irish Immigration Centers played a very important role in communicating with communities and making sure they were aware there was a safe space to which they could come and people to whom they could speak about issues of concern to them. To be fair, all the centres deserve kudos for that. Their doors were open. Virtual programming was put in place in a flash. Those of us who previously knew nothing about Zoom became very proficient in it by the end of April 2020. The centres have continued to operate in that realm for the past 12 months. We have created several new elements of programming. The centre in Chicago and our centre here in San Francisco organised immigration question and answer sessions with our local consulates. More than 100 people joined those hour-long presentations which provided information and an update regarding what was happening with regard to Covid, Ireland, travel and vaccination. We have all worked to our collective strengths in making sure people know information is available, current and correct and that our doors are open to receive questions.

A question was asked regarding the impact of Covid on the documented community. As Mr. Stahl referenced, travel stopped for many members of the documented community. For the past 12 months, the only people who have been able to travel to Ireland and return, for any reason, are US citizens, that is, those of us who have dual citizenship, or green card holders. Many visa holders were used to having the ability to come and go and being able to have that touch back to home. Several members of the committee mentioned the importance of that touch back to home, of coming back to family and friends and being able to regroup. It is very important that the symbiotic relationship that exists between Ireland and America is maintained and that we have a free flow between our two countries. Many of the documented living in the United States got a very sharp taste of what it is like not to be able to move freely or to travel over and back. In many cases, they got a taste of what it is like to be a member of the undocumented community who, to answer an earlier question, would do anything in their power to regularise their status. I can safely say that all undocumented immigrants living in the United States would do anything possible to regularise their status. Unfortunately, as has been mentioned, we struggle to find the path for them to do so.