Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, to the House and congratulate him and the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, on the work they are doing on this very important issue. I read with interest and very much welcomed the Minister's statement on this motion in the Dáil. I compliment Senator Mooney and the Members of this House who have travelled to the United States on a number of occasions to raise the issue. Senator Mooney mentioned he has done so on three occasions this year.

The Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs has had much discussion on this matter. One of the committee's positive initiatives was to invite the US ambassador, Mr. Kenny, to one of its meetings to discuss it. There was some controversy at the time because he wanted to hold the meeting in private. Indeed, as it transpired, he was well able to handle the matter and he would have had no difficulty if the meeting had been public. He made the important point that he deals with many of the matters regarding the undocumented in private. It was a useful meeting. That we met him and his staff at the embassy meant that we were able to contact him about many of the concerns we have about people we know. We all have relatives and friends in the United States. As Galway representatives, the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, and I are aware that this issue is very relevant to that county. It was great to meet the ambassador and to have a good discussion with him.

I made a point that day which has been raised by other Members as regards American students or citizens in this country. They seem to be treated badly, even in terms of work permits and matters relating to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. I cannot understand why American students have to return home so quickly from this country. There should be an extension of time, as recommended by many of the Senators who spoke before me. We welcome all citizens of the European Union, but we do not know them as well as we do the people and representatives of the United States of America. There is a glaring inconsistency in the manner in which the members of one jurisdiction are treated by comparison with members of the other.

I brought the issue of a highly qualified chef from the United States to the notice of the Minister of State with responsibility for trade and employment and indeed, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Unfortunately, the person was forced to return to the United States because it was felt there were too many chefs in the country. That is something that should be examined. This person was highly qualified in the area of Japanese cuisine and that is not common in Ireland. We must put our house in order as regards such issues because we cannot continually say that more needs to be done for our Irish emigrants if we are not prepared to review the situation in respect of people who come here from the United States. I have asked the US ambassador to Ireland, Mr. Kenny, to look at that situation, also.

I was in New York in May at a meeting concerned with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty around the same time that Senator Mooney was in Washington. At a break in proceedings, after listening to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, it was interesting to talk to people we met from Ireland, above all the embassy staff in New York. They told us of some of the difficulties in which Irish people find themselves when trying to get work. As Senator O'Toole said, there is obviously a black economy there, because people are not able to get their tax affairs in order. We heard many stories, for example, if a person is being charged with a driving offence as simple as not having the correct lights on, it means that not only is he or she in trouble — all the passengers are too. There might be a disturbance in a house where all those resident, not only the culprit, find themselves in difficulty.

I cannot understand why, when a person is in difficulty in, say, Boston, he or she can be taken away without their families being contacted for up to three or four days. In some instances of which I am aware, people have been transferred from Boston to New York and there is enormous difficulty in making contact. We have raised this issue with our ambassador and I hope this area will be improved on. I am aware that I am citing particular examples but the overall issue of importance is to get the Kennedy-McCain Bill enacted. I want to compliment Senators McCain and Kennedy, whom I have met, as well as members of the House of Representatives, who are employing might and main to resolve this issue. There has been lobbying in the past as regards Morrison and Donnelly visas and a great deal of work was done in getting those through. There was the issue of a lottery to decide who should get visas. In some instances people were somewhat disappointed at the manner in which that was handled. It was at least an attempt to try to deal with the issue of a great many Irish people who were undocumented. There is much more work to do, however. Even though there was a good deal of emigration in the 1980s, there are very many Irish people out there now who possess a far greater spirit of adventure than existed in my time as a teenager. People are travelling and Irish people are certainly on the move. We all want to see issues concerning the undocumented dealt with.

Senator O'Toole made the point about representation for emigrants in a general way and I am totally in agreement with him. In the past we examined the possibility of voting rights for emigrants. If the vote for emigrants to the US were allowed, Deputy Treacy and I would be campaigning in Boston rather than east Galway, given the great numbers of Irish domiciled in some of the US cities. As regards representation for emigrants in the Oireachtas, the Seanad is an obvious place for such an initiative. Great work has been done by some organisations in cities throughout Europe and, indeed, the United States. The DION funding, which the Minister has increased this year, is obviously a very important mechanism for them. I hope we can continue to increase that.

I again welcome this debate. We could discuss a great many issues. In conclusion, President Bush has rightly been criticised for many of the issues in which he was involved, the war in Iraq in particular, as discussed often in this House. However, this is one that he supports strongly and which he knows is of enormous importance for Irish immigrants as well as many other nationalities. He could make his mark in this regard by accepting that this is a good Bill worthy of his support. Hopefully, this legislation will be enacted in the United States.