Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Ring for tabling this motion. While there should have been no need for Fine Gael to do this, I am pleased the Government has seen fit to accept the simple thrust of our proposals. However, from what I have heard tonight, it does not seem to have any great enthusiasm for them. The Government should have been proactive on issues relating to our undocumented citizens in the United States who are trapped in a no-win situation in no-man's land. We all remember October 2005 when this House unanimously agreed to back the Kennedy-McCain proposals to introduce a new immigration policy for the US to take in all immigrants irrespective of their origin.

We in Fine Gael did everything to help our immigrants on this issue. Along with Deputies Ring, McGinley and Coveney, I met scores of members of the US Congress. We walked and addressed rallies of several thousand Irish men and women, many of whom had travelled all night across the United States to be in Washington for those rallies. A feature of those events was the number of participants from Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, the US Congress is not yet able to come up with a solution agreeable to either the Democrats or Republicans that would provide an opportunity for the undocumented to be allowed out of the darkness, to have the fear of expulsion from the US removed and above all else to put in place a system to allow Irish citizens to come and go to see their families in Ireland as they so wish, which I would have thought is a basic human right. However, the upcoming US presidential election is now taking a grip on US politics and it is unlikely that the immigration Bill will feature before this great event.

Having been in America four times on this issue in the past two years, I recognise an alternative solution that would benefit most of the undocumented Irish in the United States. A bilateral agreement between the US Government and ours based on the same lines as the Australia-US model would create great opportunities for our people in the US to overcome the difficulties to which I have alluded. On the other side of the coin, many American citizens in Ireland tell me that our immigration policy is very cumbersome for them here. Given the significant US investment in Ireland, a large number of American citizens living in Ireland would welcome such a development.

There is also an all-Ireland dimension. The peace treaty should surely be enhanced by a joint approach by the Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to give Irish people North and South an opportunity to live normal lives in the US. Why is this not happening? I see the Minister of State shaking his head. He is like a man who does not believe what we are at either. We are doing it for the best interests and on behalf of our people in Washington at the moment. People like Niall O'Dowd, Ciaran Staunton, Grant Lally and a host of powerful Irish-Americans have spent their time and money trying to help our citizens in America. This is what they want. The Taoiseach has been over there many times. Why does he never take up this issue? He never put the matter to Senator Kennedy or any of the powerful Irish-American senators. Why does he not do so?

See this speech in context