Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The immigration, residence and protection Bill will put on a statutory basis valuable schemes to allow undocumented people in this country to get back into the immigration system. There are similar schemes in place in the United States for undocumented Irish people. The difficulty is that, to access those schemes, the undocumented Irish must return to Ireland to have a visa issued to them, which means they are then hit with a three-year or ten-year ban for having been illegally resident in the United States. A waiver system has been introduced in Mexico. The introduction of a similar waiver system here would address the problem for about one third of the undocumented Irish in the US. I understand a letter has issued from the Government to the US ambassador in regard to the establishment of such a waiver scheme here. When was that letter sent to the ambassador? Does it formally request the lifting of the visa ban and the introduction of a waiver scheme here to address this anomaly for the undocumented Irish in the US?

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