Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the announcement this morning by the Minister of State at the Department of Finance with responsibility for the OPW, Deputy Brian Hayes, that an initial allocation of €19 million would be made available through his offices for flood defence works, following the damage caused in January and February this year. I am delighted that €8.7 million of the total will be made available to the people of County Clare, the shoreline of which was ravaged in the recent inclement weather. The money will go a significant way towards ensuring proper flood defence mechanisms are put in place on a long-term basis to ensure what we witnessed at the beginning of 2014 will not be seen again. The provision of this €8.7 million is a very important incremental step in protecting the coastline of County Clare. I welcome the allocation of this money, on top of the €17 million made available through the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government a couple of weeks ago. In total, we are looking at an investment of €25 million, about which the people of County Clare will be happy.

I concur with the comments of other speakers regarding St. Patrick's Day and those who will travel around the world to promote Ireland. This is also a good time to reflect on the plight of the 50,000 undocumented Irish living and working illegally in the United States of America. There have been many false dawns for them, with various representatives in the United States making significant strides forward only to take a number of steps back. The Taoiseach is travelling to Washington and I have no doubt that he will avail of the opportunity during his meeting with President Obama to speak about the need for a solution to the problem of the undocumented Irish in the United States. I call on all public representatives travelling to the United States, whether in a private or an official capacity, to use the unique opportunity afforded by the St. Patrick's Day celebrations to highlight the plight of the 50,000 undocumented Irish who cannot come home for funerals, weddings, christenings and so forth for fear of being deported. A family from my area who had been living and working in the Boston area for many years where they were well established were deported last year. I do not want to see any other Irish family who have made a home in the United States suffer the same fate. It is incumbent on us all to make an effort to support the 50,000 undocumented Irish in the United States and I hope we will soon see a pathway to their legalisation.