Ms Celine Kennelly:

I would. I will come back to something mentioned previously, and Deputy Clarke highlighted it, which is the wrap-around services that were put in place during Covid. That is what we provide as immigration centres. We provide wrap-around services when any member of the public comes to us in crisis. Many of our immigrant population do, especially the undocumented, those with mental health difficulties and struggles and those with drug and alcohol abuse. Their success depends on wrap-around services. It depends on dealing with the housing, the medical issues and immigration issues, and giving them the tools to get back on their feet. For many of them there has been a blip and they have found themselves unable to get over that blip and sinking further and further. We should look to the Covid model. It is something municipalities are doing across the US and governments are doing. We were able to pivot quickly and provide service to our most vulnerable members of the community during Covid, and I strongly believe we should be able to learn from that.

In terms of people coming, as Mr. Staunton said, we do not see anything happening on the immigration front. We see an undocumented community that continues to be further marginalised because, the longer those people are there, the fewer safety supports they have in place as they age. One of the populations that has become a concern to many centres, and it was highlighted by the Aisling Irish Community Center in New York, is construction workers as they start to come to retirement age and are no longer able physically to perform the work they have done throughout their lives, the only work that is open to them. What happens to them? There is no health insurance, no retirement plan and no pension. It is whatever they have put away. They were living on their weekly wage and some were more successful than others in putting money away. Many of them are single. It is very reminiscent of what we have seen happen in the UK, where there are older Irishmen who find themselves very quickly, sometimes because of injury but certainly because of approaching retirement age, without any support systems and no longer able to support themselves. What happens to them?

In terms of what can happen to address the issue of the undocumented, it must be a Government-wide continued focus beyond St. Patrick's Day. Every Deputy, Senator and Minister who comes to the United States must speak to the leadership he or she meets to examine how we can resolve this problem based on the amazing, one-to-one relationship that exists between Ireland and the United States. It is a relationship of migrancy. We come and we go. People from the US who are non-Irish citizens and non-Irish heritage citizens would love the opportunity to come to Ireland, but it is not that easy for them to come to Ireland either. We would love to see a model created on the Irish side that creates that level of goodwill and gives something that would give the government agencies in the US a goal to work towards. There is a broad concern among the GAA, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, AOH, and in local and national civic engagement about the influence of Irish America because, as it stands, Irish America is shrinking. We do not have a new population coming. We would love to see a model set in Ireland for US citizens to come there because many of them might have Irish heritage going back generations but they cannot easily come to Ireland and work. That would give us a model to present on the US side.