Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I do not want to make a categoric comment on a manifesto that is due out tomorrow. I do not know but from what I have read, and I have been following this issue, and if it is as it seems, it appears to reflect a hardening of their position, including ruling out the d'Hondt voting system. Without getting into the election, it is a core element of the Good Friday Agreement under which a power-sharing executive is assured. Without going over the issue, it is an unwelcome development because it cannot be made work. Perhaps when I negotiated the Good Friday Agreement I did not absolutely understand how it would work but having been through it to get the executive up and running, I became an expert on it and without it we could not have a power-sharing executive. There is no other mechanism.

When I read that in conjunction with what has been said by Peter Robinson, and perhaps he was misquoted, that it might take a generation to make any progress, that indicates enormous scepticism in terms of where we were last December. That is the only point I am making. We had difficulties within the past few months and we are trying to deal with those.

There was a willingness in the talks that ended unsuccessfully on 8 December for the republican movement to move to a new mode. The difference between that and the statement we have seen is that I am fairly certain it was not worked through the whole republican movement throughout the island in the way that it was debated and agreed upon here and that they would formally move to what Gerry Adams is now asking of them — an end game and to recreate themselves in some other form, and that is their business, but away from paramilitarism, criminality, training and all of the other issues. That is the distinction. While there was a willingness to do these things on the part of the leadership of the movement, it was not something that had the ground-swell of support. My view is that because it did not have that, it led to what I believe was the IRA robbery on 20 December and other activities. I suppose that is true of any organisation. As I have said many times before, the people in the republican movement have their own rules and orders and they have to follow their own procedures. The fact that they are into a process of considering that now is good. Obviously, the result will be the important aspect. It will not be much use to us all unless there is a conclusive result without conditions but time will tell in that regard. It is not an issue for now but I hope it will be later in the summer.

I took the opportunity this year of having a good engagement with the US President on the position of the illegal Irish in the US. This issue has become acute because of the new procedures they have introduced, particularly the one on driving licences which has caught many people who perhaps had their heads under the parapet. The new procedures mean they are off the road and that is difficult for people living in the United States. We raised this issue but we have no idea of the number of people who are in this position, although the Department of Foreign Affairs and the organisations in the United States have been trying to get a proper handle on the statistics.

There is a willingness on the part of the President, the Administration and friends of Ireland on the Hill to help with this issue. Their problem is the way they deal with countries like ours, which they do not see as a problem because, by and large, very few people now emigrate to the United States; if anything, people are returning here from the US. The Deputy will be aware that because of these issues the trend is for people who did not come back in the past number of years to come back now. There has been an upward trend in the past 12 months in the number of families and people who emigrated before the 1980s to return here, and that can only be linked to the fact that they are finding it too hot, so to speak, in the new environment.

The problem not just for the President but the Houses of Congress is finding a scheme that deals with the Mexican situation. It is easy to deal with our situation and that of other countries like ours but the Mexican situation is very difficult. There are many bright people looking at this and we will make any suggestions we can but we need to make some progress. There is a willingness to do it but we cannot get Ireland dealt with separately.

The President spoke about the quota system but there is no longer a quota system; perhaps they will bring it back in some form. We will continue to pursue it during the course of the year. We have built up a liaison through the ambassador who has been meeting many of the Irish groups during the winter and trying to get an assessment of the number of Irish illegals. The official figures are a bit of a nonsense, although we should probably not say that. They indicate there are 3,000 or 4,000 illegal Irish in the country but we know that in the Boston area alone there could be 10,000. I am not sure of the figures but we will continue to help. Congressman Walsh, Senator Kennedy, Senator Dodd and others are being quite helpful in trying to assist us with it.

See this speech in context