Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Deputies are probably aware that it is unlikely there will be a resolution of the immigration issue in the US before the presidential election. All of the main players and all our supporters in both Houses of Congress have made that clear to us since last year. We were very disappointed that efforts by the US Congress to pass the comprehensive reform legislation were unsuccessful, because we had put a good deal of effort into that, as had Members on all sides of this House. However, we are continuing to explore bilateral options to regularise the status of the majority of the thousands of undocumented Irish, particularly those who have been in the US for many years, and to put in place an ordered system of legal migration from Ireland to the United States. We have engaged in wide-ranging consultation with members of Congress, the US Administration and the Irish community there, to assess how this might be achieved.

There are strong differences of opinion, even among our supporters and people who have been very helpful to us over the years. I believe many people have been persuaded of the need to provide future opportunities for Irish people to work and travel in the US, which would also be open to the undocumented. However, it will be extremely difficult to secure such an arrangement, given the nature of the immigration debate in Washington. For obvious reasons that are not Irish-related, this is a passionate and divisive debate.

The Dáil agreed a motion last November supporting efforts to establish reciprocal bilateral arrangements which would benefit Irish and American citizens seeking to work and travel between and within the two countries, and reiterating our strong commitments to continuing engagement towards resolving the difficulties being experienced by the undocumented. This will be the third year in which most of my time with the leaders in both the House of Representatives and on Capitol Hill will have been taken up on this issue, in an effort to tease out the difficulties. There is a strong sense in Washington that immigration reform will remain a difficult issue for the foreseeable future. While US political leaders fully acknowledge that the number of undocumented Irish is extremely small in the overall context, there is an understandable reluctance to single out one particular group for preferential treatment, and therein lies the difficulty. I do not believe anyone is against our cause, but when taken in its totality they cannot deal with it. We will, of course, continue our efforts for as long as it takes, and I shall certainly work on it again next month at the meetings that I will have. The Deputy mentioned many other issues. It is a matter of trying to raise these issues within the time available but the economy, immigration, the North, Europe and issues relating to climate change policies in Europe are the issues I hope to focus on.

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