Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy is referring to the arrangements we have for citizens who emigrate. That is a major issue. The Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Foreign Affairs and Enterprise, Trade and Employment work closely on that issue. We have the green card here for people coming in who are required in various professions and businesses. We have a liberal regime on that but on other sides there are other difficulties and issues. The new immigration Bill is one of the more important Bills to come before the House this year because of the huge number of loopholes and areas that have to be dealt with in the legislation that we never had before. We have been working on immigration legislation since 1935 and a number of amendments have been made since then. I will give three examples. There is a huge Chinese community here. All the issues relating to education, English language training, visas and permits have to be tidied up. We have a sizeable Brazilian community but they are not covered by any of the regulations. The legislation also must address bogus marriages which, let us be honest about it, is a major problem. They come from a range of nationalities.

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