Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the speech overnight by President Obama in which he indicated he will initiate legislation for the undocumented immigrants - estimated at 11 million people - living in the United States. That follows a bipartisan statement of principles, with four Democrats and four Republicans coming together to issue a set of principles on what they believe could constitute all-party agreement legislation for the undocumented people in America. This issue has seen renewed focus since the presidential election, when Republicans realised that the Hispanic vote had moved to Democrats, and that the issue of legislating - or at least creating a path to legalisation - for the 11 million people in the United States living illegally was something that Hispanics wanted. I hope this happens and if it does, it will help the 30,000 to 50,000 undocumented Irish who are living illegally in the United States currently.

We should hope this is not a false dawn like that of 2007, when I and others from this House attended a rally in snow in March that year with more than 3,000 illegal Irish people in America. That was in support of the Kennedy-McCain Bill and I am delighted that Senator John McCain is again involved with three other Republicans in trying to deal comprehensively with this issue once and for all. I am very happy that President Obama has issued a statement indicating that if action is not forthcoming, he will initiate legislation in this regard.

I call for a debate in this House on the undocumented Irish in America as a matter of urgency, given the political developments on Capitol Hill over recent days. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade should have a renewed sense of urgency in dealing with the issue. It would be an important debate.