Bernard Allen (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)

I agree that we must not take our eye off the political ball. Like other political representatives, we must have another card to play in our pack. A bilateral agreement must be considered as a fall-back position in tandem with our efforts at political level to address this significant problem for 50,000 undocumented Irish citizens. Will the Minister have his officials examine this possibility while we are discussing what is happening on Capitol Hill?

I hope the Minister and the Taoiseach will impress upon President Bush that he must go further than his comments in his State of the Union address, which I considered somewhat of a retreat from his sentiments expressed in his 2005 State of the Union address. I hope that in an election year in the United States of America, the enthusiasm for justice for so many people who have contributed much to the development of the US but are living in fear day in day out is not eroded by the anti-immigrant feeling in southern California and the border states with Mexico.

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