Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

They do not. During our meeting with President Bush on St. Patrick's Day we spent more time discussing other issues than the undocumented Irish. We know the President's position on the undocumented Irish. I understand from our contacts that he was very helpful this week in trying to progress the debate positively. He clearly stated the Administration and Congress would not wear an amnesty. We are progressing to a situation where the lobby on behalf of the Kennedy-McCain legislation, which includes an element of providing people with an opportunity to have a path to what is termed permanent residency, has come from the Senate Judiciary Committee to the floor of the Senate. In recent days we had discussions with Senators Kennedy and McCain on its possibility of succeeding in the Senate.

A suggestion was made that I might travel there this week because it is approaching its final position. However, a judgment was made that the best time for me to travel, and I intend to do so if the need arises, is at the reconciliation stage, which is the term used when the Bill has already gone through Congress, of the Sensenbrenner Bill on border security. We had previous discussions on this issue.

What emerged from the Senate Judiciary Committee is not exactly the Kennedy McCain legislation. However, it is critical to get that legislation passed by the Senate so that it will go to the reconciliation stage. We lobbied many people on all sides. I reiterate my understanding that this week President Bush has been more than helpful in trying to steer some of the people in his party to a view that this matter should and could be dealt with. I exhorted the Irish representatives to form a proper group to lobby the public representatives, and we fund the resulting group. I did this because in the early stages of lobbying we heard that Irish people were not exactly hammering down the doors of the Congressmen and public representatives on this issue. The formation of the lobby group and the rally it held engendered other groups. A crowd of 500,000 congregated, mainly Hispanic people which has largely turned the tide.

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