Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I commend Senators Ó Murchú and Bradford on their raising of an important issue which I had intended to raise today. I was delighted to hear the Tánaiste announce yesterday that he is making an issue of the upcoming US legislation regarding the undocumented Irish in that country. Over Christmas, I spoke to a lady whose husband had died and whose two sons in the US were not in a position to come home for the funeral. As both of them are in the US illegally, they were afraid they would not be able to get back into that country if they came home. That is an example of the human suffering of citizens of this country who are in the US without documentation. The Government and the Oireachtas have a responsibility to do everything they can to assist our bipartisan friends in the US Congress as they consider this legislation, with the aim of ensuring it gets over the line. There have been a number of possible dawns in this respect. I attended a rally in Washington in 2007 when the Kennedy-McCain Bill, which ultimately faltered, was being considered. Some 3,500 undocumented Irish people braved the snow to attend that rally. They want to be able to pay their taxes. They want a pathway to legalisation. They want to be able to come home for family events. They want to be legal. They do not want to be illegal. They want to play a part in the country they now consider to be their new home. We often talk about giving the vote to Irish people who live abroad. We should get the fundamentals right first. We can improve their quality of life by sorting out their legal status. We should help and support the members of the US Congress who are our friends and are doing their best to get this over the line.