Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I hope that on his visit to the United States the Taoiseach’s will be able to again raise with President Biden the need to appoint a special envoy to Northern Ireland. Obviously, the issue of the undocumented Irish, to which my colleague, Deputy Haughey, referred, is of extreme importance to probably about 10,000 Irish citizens in the United States.

This would be an opportune time for the President of the United States to appoint a special envoy to Northern Ireland. In the past, very eminent persons, such as Senator George Mitchell, held that role. It was an important one. It adds an additional conduit for bilateral relations on a political, economic, social and trade basis. We are fortunate that members of Congress and of the Senate, on both sides of the aisle, as they say, have constantly taken an interest in and have passed resolutions in both Houses to endorse the Good Friday Agreement, as well as to express their concerns with the protocol. They have done this since 2016 regarding the adverse impacts Brexit would have on these islands. The appointment of a special envoy would again send a clear message to Ireland and to Britain about America’s strong relationship and its particular interest in ensuring that we have stability in the long term in Northern Ireland. At any time the Taoiseach has direct access to the US Government is extremely important for all of our island.

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