John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)

As I did not expect to speak on this motion, I appreciate being given the time. While I have not listened in detail to other speakers, as far as I am aware, the McCain-Kennedy Bill is dead and was a non-starter. If Members are pinning any hopes on that legislation, they are mistaken. Efforts should be directed at the US Administration. To the best of my knowledge, the current position is that over the period from June to August, the Administration gave briefings on the immigration issue to a number of Members of the US House of Representatives as well as a number of key Senators. In essence, it was proposed that people who were in America illegally would be obliged to own up to that fact, to pay some kind of fine and to leave America and return to their countries of origin. After a year such people could apply for re-entry but without a guarantee that they would be granted citizenship. This is completely unacceptable.

In general, the lobbying efforts made by the Government have been good, but much more could be done in this respect. I have made this point repeatedly to successive Ministers for Foreign Affairs, from Mr. Dick Spring to the current Minister last week. Adequate resources are not being devoted to this issue. I know this because in the last 18 months, six of my constituents have been jailed for considerable lengths of time. They have been chained up, shotguns have been pointed at them and they have been treated very badly. In these cases, I was obliged to call the consulate office and to raise the issue in the Dáil to put pressure on the Government to do something. Opposition Deputies were obliged to raise the issue.

The Government did not pay much attention until the issue escalated dramatically and blew up in its face. It then realised that the US immigration department was treating our citizens extremely badly. The seriousness with which the Government takes these issues can be gauged by its softly-softly approach. However, we do not put the requisite efforts into lobbying for illegal undocumented Irish people. It is not being done and the Government's track record over the last year proves it.

As for my constituents, I was obliged to approach Congressman Jim Walsh. As recently as last week, he made it clear to me that he would ask the immigration department for a review of all six cases once I supplied the specific details. The Government should have done this. It should ask for such reviews and investigations within the immigration department with regard to its behaviour and the experiences of Irish citizens. However it did not do so.

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