Joe Conway (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I might just say a couple of things - not that I want to steal Senator Clonan's thunder. I have absolutely no idea what he was about to say or enliven the debate with.

There are two matters I want to address. They came up in the course of the Minister of State's contribution. The first is that he had the great fortune to share an aircraft with the Longford team returning to the west midlands. As a proud Longford man loaned to Waterford for the past 40 years, I have no doubt that he was richly entertained both in song and story by the aforementioned team.

On a more serious note, is the Minister of State in a position to look at the difficulties that have been reported to me by members of the diaspora around the world who may wish to have Irish passports but who were born and reared in the United Kingdom? When they go to establish their birth credentials in the form of the birth certificate from the United Kingdom Government, they have reported inordinate delays and difficulties in doing so. If the Minister of State could check the procedure that is used to give out British birth certificates to the children of diaspora who have had children and families in the United Kingdom, it would probably be a good day's work.