Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

On a separate matter, for many months Senator Leyden has led a strong campaign in the House on the issue of trying to regularise the situation for Irish citizens who live illegally in the United States. I compliment and support him on this. However, yesterday we aired a similar situation here where we have a group in the same situation in this State campaigning for the 11,500 parents of Irish-born children who want to have their citizenship and their situation here regularised.

I agree with Senator Leyden that we must campaign hard for the Irish in America. However, he and Government Members should agree with me that we should do our best for these 11,500 parents of Irish citizens born here. This is a crucial issue. Next week we will have the opportunity to debate the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Bill with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. I ask the people to be generous to these Irish citizens who are in a situation where many of their parents and families will be deported. If we lecture the world and the United States about their responsibilities, we should take those responsibilities seriously at home and do for our people what we claim should happen in other countries. Will this House, which has shown more mettle and independence on the issue than the Dáil, lead the campaign on this issue? Will it work with the campaign group to get rights for this small group whose situation should be regularised?