Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

One issue I wish to emphasise is the issue of bereaved families who face real difficulty in repatriating relatives who have been seriously injured abroad or the bodies of relatives who have died abroad, be they documented or undocumented. I would like the Department of Foreign Affairs to establish a dedicated unit to deal with this issue. This has become an increasingly difficult problem given the increased numbers of people travelling over the past number of years. I have had some experience of it myself and I ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs to take this message out of here tonight.

I commend my colleague, Deputy Ring, on tabling this motion. It is not today or yesterday that he and his colleagues, Deputies Connaughton and McGinley, highlighted this issue. The importance that Fine Gael places on this issue is evidenced by the fact that we took time out on Private Members' business to put it forward. While the fact that the Government has taken the motion on board is a welcome development, it is regrettable that for a long period of time, this Government was happy to leave it to the Americans to do the work for us while we did nothing. Now we must do something.

We must realise that Irish people will always go to the US, irrespective of the economic conditions here. We have a unique relationship with the Americans and we must build on this to ensure that Irish people out there can get documented in a correct manner. We must also recognise the difficulty faced by the US authorities and that it is unpopular for their politicians to go down this road at the moment. We must emphasise the unique selling points we have, while recognising that the US authorities have extreme difficulties, particularly with their southern borders and the amount of illegal immigrants who enter the country.

In view of the fact that we have been subject to immigration in recent times, it behoves us as a nation to look into our own hearts and examine how we deal with people in a similar position in this country.

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