Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

An Teachta Boyd Barrett asserted that the main Opposition parties had a tolerance for corporation tax avoidance and I want to put it on the Dáil record that Sinn Féin is against corporation tax avoidance. If my recollection is correct, it was first raised here by our finance spokesperson, Deputy Pearse Doherty. I have raised it with the Taoiseach many times, not least because it robs people in the developing world of much needed tax revenue as well as citizens in this State.

The question I wish to raise relates to the undocumented Irish in America and what the Taoiseach has been doing about that. With the Ceann Comhairle's indulgence, I want to tease out the relationship between this State and the Irish abroad. I am glad the Taoiseach raised the issue with Governor Brown and made remarks on this issue in New York, which I noted at the time. Any time I go there, and I am sure the same is the case for others, including especially the Taoiseach, I meet the undocumented. Most of them are people who were forced to leave here and those who want to stay there want to be able to pay their taxes. They are law-abiding. They want to contribute to society and they also want to be able to travel back home when they need to, whether it be for an all-Ireland final, the tragedy of a family bereavement or for a more joyous occasion such as wedding or a christening, but they cannot do that. Despite the efforts of Ciaran Staunton and others and the whole constituency of activism around emigration reform, it has stalled in Congress. I was present at the Speaker's Lunch when the Taoiseach raised this issue in a very upfront way. What plans does the Government have to progress this issue in the upcoming period?

I note from the Taoiseach's remarks that he met a wide range of young people from all over Ireland. In terms of the notion of developing a relationship with the Irish abroad, and in this case in the USA, did the Taoiseach raise with those young people, for example, the fact that the Constitutional Convention has voted in support of granting a vote to the Irish diaspora as well as to people in the North? The Taoiseach will know that An Teachta Crowe and myself have introduced a constitutional (amendment) Bill 2014 to give legislative form to the Constitutional Convention recommendation. Did the Taoiseach have a chance to explore this? We have a duty of care to these people and they are mostly young people. It is not their fault that they are where they are.

I want to acquaint the Taoiseach with what I found to be an interesting experience. I visited the direct provision centre in Mosney. Some people have been there for ten years. It is a pitiful existence, no matter how attractive the accommodation may be or any of the rest of it. It is a very inhumane system. It institutionalises people and it damages their mental health. It forces idleness upon them. Seanadóir Ó Clochartaigh, Councillor Eimear Ferguson and myself met a wide range of people. Quite a few of them said that if the Irish in America were being treated the way they are being treated here, we would be raising that issue. They said that they just want to work and they want to contribute to Irish society. One young woman told us that she had her status but could not leave the place. She had been there for so long that she could not go out into the community and develop herself because she had been stuck in that place for eight or nine years of her life. Those people raised a pertinent point. They said that if our people were being treated in the United States or anywhere else in the way they are being treated here, we would be raising this issue to the high heavens.

I know this is an issue close to the Taoiseach's heart. As we campaign for rights for our folks in the US and other countries, will the Taoiseach commit the Government to finding a resolution for the new Irish who are living in direct provision centres? Mosney is one of the better ones; in the hostels people do not have much privacy. Will the Taoiseach undertake to protect their humanity? The very rights we are seeking for our folks in the United States should be afforded to people who have come here for exactly the same reason as our people have gone to the United States of America.

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