Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

President Bush articulated the diverse views of the Congress on this matter. The legislative process has taken the road of a closed border issue and dealing with security. It is now recognised that the Congress will move into a position to try to regularise the 11 million or so undocumented people in the US.

I am not ruling out bilateral agreements. Those ideas are on our table and there have been some discussions with a number of people in the US on these issues. To ensure we get the best deal out of the legislation, I again emphasise that our efforts and those of the Irish political system should concentrate on the current proposals. If the legislation does not allow for a path to the permanent residency of undocumented people in the US in some way, it is my view the legislation would be deficient as millions of undocumented people would not come out of the woodwork to apply under it for fear that, in three or six years' time, hands would land on shoulders and they would be told to go back to where they came from. If such legislation is introduced, it will only push the problem down the line for three or six years. There must be some element of a path to permanent residency included in the legislation.

The potential of a bilateral agreement depends on the goodwill between this country and the US. The opinion in Irish-American circles, and in broader circles, is that Ireland takes a negative view of American interests. This is something we must deal with as we go, cap in hand, to ask them to change legislation to suit Irish people in America.

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