Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support the calls made today for a debate with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Flanagan, on the undocumented Irish in the United States. There are an estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish people living and working in the United States. These people who come from every corner of this country have had their hopes raised and dashed time and again over the past number of years, including by the Kennedy-McCain Bill. We need to make a renewed effort to work with our friends in Congress and the United States Senate to ensure meaningful immigration reform in the United States. We are speaking in this regard of people who consider the USA their home. They want a pathway to legalisation and to be able to pay their taxes, obtain health insurance and the certainty of knowing that when something goes wrong they can return home without the fear of not being able to return to the USA. They also want to be able to go about their daily lives in the United States not living in dread of being deported.

I dealt with a constituent who was deported from the United States three years ago. Despite that he had been living in the United States for a number of years and employed 12 and 13 people in a very successful business which he had set up there, he was deported. This is an issue on which we in this country can easily take our eye off the ball. For the people living here who have loved ones abroad illegally in the United States this is a constant worry. I would like to hear from the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, what progress he made on this issue during his recent trip to the United States and about the Government's plans and those of our diplomatic corps in the United States in terms of engagement with members of the Congress and Senate.