Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish everybody a happy Christmas, especially all the staff who had to put up with me so much over the past year. I thank them and all colleagues for their work and wish them well. In the new year, perhaps the Seanad could take a leadership role on the basis that those in the other House will be very much focused on the forthcoming general election. The Dáil will be dissolved while the Seanad will continue for a period.

At this time of year, it is important that we think about the undocumented Irish in America. I say this as a member of the Ireland America association here in the Houses.The Republicans have torpedoed President Obama's initiative to grant citizenship to the parents of children born in the US. It will not happen. A visa waiver scheme is applied, in many cases to Mexicans, and we have not benefited in the same way. Under such a scheme, undocumented Irish in America could leave and re-enter the US without being banned for five or ten years. We all have family members in our constituencies who have not been home for five to 20 years, even for family funerals and at Christmas we think about this. As a nation, we must do much more to up the ante. The eye will come off the ball in the Dáil after Christmas.

Could the Leader petition the US Government on behalf of the Seanad to provide waivers to facilitate undocumented Irish to come home without fear of being unable to re-enter the US while a more permanent arrangement is made for them? This is a very sad time for families here and in the US who are unable to see their loved ones. It is a failure of our nation that all Governments, including the current one, have not secured the same benefits and use of the waiver scheme from which the Mexicans have managed to benefit greatly. There is nothing to prevent the House from passing a motion on the issue and the Leader, and perhaps the Cathaoirleach, from taking the initiative and raising it up the US agenda on behalf of the Irish people.