Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I do not have a de facto figure. From our consultations with the United States, there are at least 3,000 Irish immigrants there. From other estimates made, the figure could be 20,000 and is certainly not more than 50,000. We are not sure, which is a serious difficulty. We know there has been much mobility of Irish immigrants into and out of the US through other countries, sometimes to return to Ireland and sometimes to leave again. We are not sure of the final destinations in certain cases. Hence, it is difficult to have a final figure.

In response to Deputy McGrath, it is unfair to say that the Government has a brass neck in the situation. In the 23 years that I have been in this House the elected Members have always been supportive and have assisted our people in all parts of the world, no matter what the situation. There is a unity of purpose there.

If one examines the situation last May, when new members joined the European Union, Ireland was the only country to give an absolute guarantee that anybody from an EU country could come to work here. Everybody said that was a crazy decision, that the floodgates would open——

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