Frank Feighan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

I congratulate Deputy Ring on raising this issue and thank the Government for accepting the motion. There have been many debates in the Dáil and Seanad on the undocumented Irish in the United States and so much has been written thereon. When I was out there about a year and a half ago, I met some of these young men and women who could not come home for funerals. It is a serious situation. Many parents have contacted me to ask what they can do about it. We have spent about two or three years trying to deal with this issue. I accept the Government has done its best in this situation.

However, there are issues regarding the Kennedy-McCain proposals. When they failed, it was a kick in the teeth for us. Unfortunately, it increased the pain of the undocumented Irish. I propose that we come up with two solutions that may help the undocumented Irish. There are between 25,000 and 50,000 undocumented Irish in the US. Many years ago when we had the green card system, certain people in Ireland applied for that lottery system who had no intention of going to the US and who took up very important places. We must be united on this. If people have green cards and are not using them, maybe we could come up with some facility whereby those green cards could go to the people at the coal face who could use them and possibly come back.

I met an American citizen in my office last week who wanted to become an Irish citizen but did not have an Irish grandmother or grandfather. Perhaps we have enough people like that to introduce a reciprocal arrangement with the US which would sort it out. We can talk until the cows come home and so much hot air has been blown that we could fly the 50,000 home. These are two proposals which could be introduced. It is bartering but it could be done and reach people at the coal face. We are talking about 25,000 to 50,000 people, between 5,000 and 10,000 of whom are in serious situations. Maybe we could deal with them immediately. I ask the Minister to take these proposals to the Government because we can sit around and wait for the House of Representatives and the Senate to agree. It may never happen. Under these proposals, we hope we can have a reciprocal arrangement. It is a matter of quid pro quo or "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" and can help us save the undocumented Irish.

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