Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy and I have the same end result in mind in this regard. Two years ago I looked very closely at the models where there are bilateral agreements in other countries. Many of the bilateral agreements that could be used would not help many of the old cases. That is the problem. One could get a bilateral agreement like the Australian one for young people, with a certain number of visas or permits per year but that would not do anything for the old cases and would not solve our problem. The support for Ireland on this issue is strong. Senator Clinton, Senator McCain, Senator Kennedy and others are strong supporters. For understandable reasons, and I understand them totally, all of them had to get off the bus on this issue last year and nobody more so than Senator John McCain.

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