Billy Lawless (Independent) | Oireachtas source

As most in this House are aware, I have been an advocate for the rights of Irish emigrants, particularly to the US, for several decades now, and during that time our campaign has seen many highs, along with many lows. I would like to update the House regarding the Irish situation.

In 2007, we were close to nationwide immigration reform that would have protected the undocumented Irish and potentially closed off the divisive debates currently occupying the immigration scene in the United States. In 2013, Democrats and Republicans came together and many put their careers on the line, to settle immigration reform once and for all, again in a manner that would have helped the Irish undocumented, and all the undocumented across the United States. This also fell at the final furlong. In 2018, at the end of the congressional term in the US Senate, our fight faced another setback, this time in our campaign to get Ireland 5,000 or so US non-immigrant E3 working visas. Where we succeeded in what was then a Republican controlled House of Representatives, we failed in a Republican controlled Senate. In the end, however, my experience in this long campaign is that our fight for improved rights and conditions for immigrants, has been a progressive one, even if that progression has been all too slow. The principle however, that the question of Irish immigrants can be dealt with across both party aisles, in the lifetime of this administration has now been firmly established.

As many in this House will recognise, sometimes one's greatest rivals in politics, are those from within one's own party, and on this occasion, Ireland got caught in the middle of an internal Republican Party dogfight. Like this House, the US Senate has its own Standing Orders and rules, and Senator Cotton of Arkansas was able to place a hold on the E3 visa legislation, thereby avoiding a debate and a subsequent vote, which would have succeeded if it had been placed on the floor. The reason Senator Cotton prevented a vote on the floor was because a piece of legislation which he sponsored on immigration had been blocked by Senator Grassley from his own party, and we became the fall guy in this dispute. In short, the timing was not right. Speaker Paul Ryan, a man who was opposed by the right wing element of his own party for his perceived progressive stance on immigration, was willing, on his way out of public life to try to achieve the granting of the surplus E3 visas for the Irish. This shows that Congressmen and Senators of every creed and hue, can be persuaded by the Irish cause.

This legislation was not about the undocumented Irish and it was not about amnesty. This was about creating a level playing field for Irish people looking to work in the United States, by increasing from 1,200 to over 5,000 the number of Irish people who could come to work legally in the US. Ireland is in fact comparatively low to other nations in the number of visas we receive every year and this would have equalised the situation, through benefiting from the unused E3 visas that the Australians receive. We will keep this fight alive as we always have and I am convinced that within the next two years of this congressional term, through bipartisanship, we can achieve solutions for Ireland and use that success to build momentum towards the bigger causes of the undocumented Irish and wider immigration reform in the United States.