Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. The political landscape for making progress on immigration reform and achieving some improvement for the undocumented Irish and progress towards legalising their situation has become more difficult since President Trump took office. Certainly he appears to be a very difficult man to talk to and make progress with. It does emphasise, and makes all the more important, the necessity of widening our net and ensuring we continue to engage with both Houses of Congress and parliamentarians who have a genuine interest in achieving progress for the undocumented Irish and other undocumented nationalities.

We have 115,000 Irish nationals living in the United States legally. It is harder to get a quantification of the exact number of undocumented Irish but it has been estimated to be anything up to 50,000. We have all been at funerals where sons or daughters have not been there to bury their mothers and fathers because they are in the United States without the ability to come home and they have not been able to do so for many years. This is crucial for all parties. I know the Minister knows the importance of it. It is important that we re-emphasise and redouble our efforts with the Houses of Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate to try to build a coalition and deal with the threats that are there at present to making progress in this regard.

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