Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his informative brief on what he did in Boston where he had a busy schedule. I congratulate him on receipt of an honorary doctorate. It is important that we continue to foster relations between Irish America, both at political level and at a more informal level.

There were two matters I wanted to point out. First, I welcome the meeting the Taoiseach held with the US multinationals organised by IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. Of course, he had Offaly in mind when he was over there. We would welcome them with open arms, particularly increased trips of groups from IDA Ireland.

I suppose I specifically wanted to focus on the efforts that were being made by everybody on the legalisation and citizenship of the undocumented Irish. We have 50,000 over there. It is fantastic that the Bill was passed recently in the Senate but every effort should be made diplomatically to ensure that it gets through the House of Representatives. It is critical. This is the closest it has been in decades, for the 11 million undocumented in the United States but, specifically, for our undocumented. Recently, I had contact from a parent whose daughter is over there for a number of years. She is doing really well but, unfortunately, cannot come home for those important family events that we all treasure and make life so worthwhile. What strategy does the Government employ as a rule in terms of linking in with the various lobby groups over there? I refer to the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform.

The Tánaiste is visiting the US and I welcome that the Taoiseach has had meetings on this matter. Has the Government a specific strategy to deal with this? I am particularly concerned about the citizenship element. We want to ensure that they are given legal status and also citizenship. We do not want our people to be second-class citizens over there.

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