Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

My party has a proud history of creating social change in this country. We are probably unlike any other party in the degree of change we have stimulated. I refer to our attitudes to divorce, abortion, the rights of the LGBTQ community, women's issues and many other areas. As a party, we are now pursuing a campaign to ensure that every child born in this country has a pathway towards citizenship. We will not stop until it is achieved. The 27th amendment to the Constitution was introduced by Fianna Fáil with the support of Fine Gael in opposition and passed in 2004. It needs to be withdrawn or we must bring in legislation to neutralise it to allow a pathway to citizenship for children whose parents were born outside the State. It is completely wrong that such children cannot get passports, have problems accessing higher education or in some cases are threatened with deportation. It is wrong that children are treated differently from those they sit next to in school and are in some ways discriminated against.

The majority of Members of this House are delighted that change is coming in the United States. US President-elect Joe Biden has said that he wants to support the children of illegal immigrants. They call them "dreamers" in the United States. We have our own dreamers here. There are children in our own country that we need to look after. I am asking for the Tánaiste's support in this. We have 3,000 undocumented children in Ireland. These are our dreamers. We are going through a pandemic. So many of our healthcare workers come from outside this State. I have met some whose children were born in this State but do not have the same rights as the children they sit beside in crèches, primary schools, secondary schools or in some cases third level institutions. The pandemic has created disruption and changed the way we think. It has given us a chance to breathe and think about what is important to us. The children of all of those workers deserve to be treated equally. We all know about the case of Eric Zhi Ying Mei Xue, whose deportation order was opposed by a petition signed by 65,000 people and was then reversed. There are many children like Eric. It is not good enough that if someone has a Minister in his or her constituency he or she can get a deportation order changed for a child while many others face similar orders.

My colleague, Senator Ivana Bacik, has introduced legislation to deal with this issue in the Seanad. Will the Tánaiste support this in order to ensure that these children have a pathway? This is a campaign that the Labour Party has initiated. It is being led by our youth wing, Labour Youth. Will the Tánaiste support this campaign and ensure that our 3,000 dreamers get their rightful place in this country, are respected and are given a pathway to citizenship?

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