Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Schumer Bill and the Brown Bill both pitch the education requirement at the leaving certificate level or thereabouts. This is an election year in the United States. Like anywhere else, an election year presents the most difficult set of circumstances, politically, in which to make progress on an issue like this. The Government wants to make progress here. There are broadly similar Bills from both sides of the aisle in the United States Senate. We want to make it clear to Senators Brown and Schumer that we will work with them and support them in every way we can and maintain contact with them on that front. In doing that, we must be mindful not to add to their difficulties in persuading their colleagues to support the Bills they have drafted and brought before the Senate.

We are continuing with the discussions. It is important for us to bear in mind that this is an election year in the United States. The Taoiseach and I have plans to maintain contacts with key figures in Washington to set out our support and to make it clear that we are anxious to see progress made on this matter. We will continue that over the coming weeks. Senators Brown and Schumer were positive in the meetings we had. Senator Leahy, when I spoke to him, was positive. We will work on the positive approach and response we got and help in every way we can to make progress on this issue.