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

In the Taoiseach's meeting with US President Biden next week, I presume among the many areas for discussion will be the need to strengthen further bilateral relations between our countries. We are very glad a friend of Ireland holds the presidency. I am thinking in particular of the undocumented Irish, with best estimates indicating there may be up to 10,000 Irish people in the US who have not had their status regularised. Those people, in the main, are working, paying taxes and raising families while contributing to society. A legal framework needs to be put in place to ensure Irish people can emigrate successfully and with proper status to the US. We saw during the pandemic the difficulties that could arise when people do not have their status regularised in the country. It is very important for the issue to be very much on the agenda. The E3 visa Bill option fell at midnight when one member of Congress objected. I sincerely hope the Taoiseach can make progress on that. I hope he will raise with President Biden the need to appoint a special envoy to Northern Ireland. Distinguished persons in the past, such as Senator George Mitchell, occupied such a position.

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