Seanad debates

Thursday, 23 February 2017

10:30 am

Photo of Billy LawlessBilly Lawless (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I also welcome the continued support for the global Irish by his Department and the Government. I have been working with immigration support groups in Chicago and nationwide for over 12 years. I was one of the founding members of the Chicago Celts for Immigration Reform. Successive Governments, and the current Taoiseach in particular, have always put the global Irish to the fore of Government policy. The first thing discussed when Irish Ministers come to Capitol Hill is the undocumented Irish. The bipartisan Congress group, Friends of Ireland, met with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, last week. The representation included Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan.

The document produced in March 2015, Global Irish - Ireland’s Diaspora Policy, was the first clear Irish Government policy on the diaspora. It acknowledges and highlights Ireland’s unique and important relationship with its diaspora. This relationship must be nurtured and developed.

Government funding through the Government’s emigrant support programme has been provided since 2004 to non-profit organisations, to projects to support Irish communities overseas, and to nurture links between home and our Irish overseas. This year the allocation is over €11.5 million. More than €2.3 million is allocated to organisations in the United States.

A few days ago a number of memos signed by President Trump sought to escalate his executive orders on immigration enforcement. The memo of most concern to the Irish is the hiring of an additional 10,000 immigration and customs officers, and 5,000 border patrol agents. These Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, officials will focus on deporting convicted felons, and people involved in gang activity and drug trafficking. They will prioritise the arrest of deportable immigrants who have abused public benefits. Fortunately, we have very little criminality among the Irish community. Thankfully, the order exempts those protected by President Obama’s deferred action for childhood arrivals. This covers many Irish emigrants who are now parents of US-born children.

This is a critical time for Ministers visiting the United States for the St. Patrick’s week festivities. We have many friends in Congress, on both sides of the aisle. We have to deliver the message that there is a special case to be made for the Irish. It is very important to remember that in 2013 an immigration reform Bill was passed in the Senate with bipartisan support. The Bill gave 10,500 visas in perpetuity to Ireland. This is the base we should be working from now. The goodwill was there. I spoke with Senator Dick Durbin in Washington DC just before I returned to Ireland. I wanted to find out if there had been any objections to the granting of the Irish visas. He told me that there had not been one objection.

We should be using our economic relationship with the United States. Irish companies in the United States employ nearly as many workers as American companies employ here. There is certainly a special relationship between Ireland and the United States. We should have more reciprocity on visas. This is something that could be worked on. Many Members of Congress have stated that they are going to tackle immigration reform this year. This is entirely necessary, particularly in light of the recent executive orders affecting these issues. I would press upon the Minister of State and his colleagues that when they go to the US they use their platform to seek out the special relationship that is there.

The interdepartmental committee on the Irish abroad, which the Minister of State chairs, has at its core the facilitation of cross-border approaches to the needs of the returning Irish. There are many issues facing returning Irish. This week I raised with the Department of Education and Skills the serious issue around access to third level education. A Galway man emigrated to Silicon Valley with his children. He is working for Medtronic. They are there seven or eight years. His children are highly motivated students who are ready to go to university. They would qualify for the merit programme for scholarships to US colleges but, because they are Irish citizens, they cannot avail of any scholarship in the United States. If they come back to Ireland they would have to pay practically full fees to attend an Irish university as they have not been in college for three of the past five years.That is wrong. The Minister must look at that.

There are other problems which face returning citizens. These include car insurance, driving licences, grants for first-time home buyers, farm registrations and so forth. There are a lot of different Departments involved. We should be making it easy for our returning emigrants. It is possible that we will have a lot returning, as we cannot foresee the effects of President Trump's executive orders. We should be ready for them. I am fully confident that the Minister of State with responsibility for the diaspora and overseas development aid, Deputy McHugh, will do everything possible to facilitate policies across Government to ensure that barriers to returning to Ireland are very few.

One issue very close to my heart is voting rights for the Irish aboard. Along with Noreen Bowden and Kevin Sullivan, I am a founding member of votingrights.ie. I was delighted that the public consultation process undertaken to review the diaspora policy reinforced the wish for extending voting rights to Irish around the world. Ireland is one of only three EU countries which do not have voting rights abroad. I welcome the Minister of State's comments that extensive work has been done in this area. It is vital that we progress this matter without undue delay. We do not want to be accused of fudging the issue. I appreciate it is a complex decision. However, we have been able to overcome a lot of other things in this country, so let us hope that this gets done as quickly as possible.

The upcoming global Irish civic forum on 4 and 5 May in Dublin Castle will be an opportunity to connect with representatives of over 140 organisations working with the Irish community globally. The people attending this forum, many of whom I met when the event took place two years ago, are phenomenal. I think the bookings had to be closed as we had so many applying. Of those people, 99% were volunteers. They came from as far away as New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. There were people I had never heard of there.The untold work they do for our emigrants abroad is outstanding.Listening to them, one finds out about the problems Irish citizens have abroad. I welcome the forum that will take place on 4 and 5 May.

I know there is a good deal of pressure on the Minister of State now, particularly from both the undocumented Irish and their families here in Ireland. I hear about it every day also. We have to protect our people, but I assure the Minister I will not leave any stone unturned in my deliberations with US Government Senators and Congressmen to encourage and promote realistic possibilities for a solution. I look forward to continuing to work with the Minister of State, Deputy McHugh, the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, and the Taoiseach.

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