Senator Martin Conway:

We travelled to the United States and tried to promote the best possible outcome. All of us, particularly those of us from the western seaboard from where there has been a high level of emigration, are aware of families who have been riven as a result of their undocumented status and being unable to return home for family events. That is still the case. The initiatives that came from a bipartisan group of Senators and Members of both Houses and now followed up by President Obama, as Senator Conway said, are to be welcomed. I hope that will be an added incentive for the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and for the Government to continue to make representations to the US Administration and that the Irish Embassy in Washington, which has played a superb role in this throughout, will step up its efforts in this regard and that, hopefully, we will see an end to what has been a very sad and unfortunate episode in Irish-American relations.