Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this matter. I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for coming here to directly deal with this issue.

My Commencement matter addresses the need for the Minister to make a statement on the Irish emigrant support programme, ESP, in the United Kingdom and the ongoing funding opportunities. I spent a week in London, including St. Patrick's weekend, as did many Members of the Seanad and the Dáil as part of a delegation led by Deputy Feighan. I wish to thank him for that ongoing work and building of that important, mature, new, emerging relationship between the islands. It is extremely important that should continue. I believe in the term "soft power". Relationships are very important. As we meet across the various jurisdictions, it is important that we develop. "You win their hearts, you win their minds" is an old expression and I firmly believe that. For those who were in Westminster and in other parts of these islands last week, anything that cements relationships has to be positive.

The work the Irish centre is doing is excellent. I wish to acknowledge our ambassador, Martin Fraser and his team in London. They do an exceptional job. They too joined us in Westminster and engaged in the dialogue, conversation and the social aspects of that visit. Much was learned and a greater depth of understanding between us was teased out and developed.

I wish to touch on the issue of the emigrant support programme because while we celebrate the great diversity of Ireland and our heritage, we also know that many Irish people in the forties, fifties, sixties and seventies left this island through no choice of their own. It may have been social stigma. There were many young pregnant women who left with a promise that they could come back but they were never welcomed back. I met some of those women last week and there are sad stories. I sat on the tube the other day in London between Richmond and Westminster and there was an advertisement on the train encouraging people to engage with the mother and baby redress scheme, which is positive. I do not see those advertisements on buses, trains or DARTs here. There is an awareness. However, there is not a big enough awareness. It is important that we reach out to many of our citizens, who are trapped in the other parts of the word. I do not have time to talk about America and other places and the undocumented, but we know there are many undocumented Irish struggling in Birmingham, Manchester, London and other parts of the UK.

I am greatly encouraged by the positive work that is happening but it is important that we continue to build on that network and continue to support our people. They are our people; they are of us; they are our relations; they are our family; and they are steeped in their sense of Irishness. One of the things we encounter when going to Liverpool, Birmingham and all over the place, particularly on St. Patrick's weekend, is that great sense of pride. We and they are Irish. There is a commonality and there is a humanity in all of their stories that we need to respond to.

I know the Minister of State is fully committed to this. I know of his deep work in building relationships on the islands. Can we, however, continue to develop and reach out to the London Irish Centre and the lunch clubs? There are many lunch clubs. My sister is involved in a lunch club five days per week in Falconwood, just outside London, where up to 60 people who are in their seventies and eighties come for lunch and support every day. Sometimes they need assistance navigating their social welfare payments and other issues.

It is not possible to bring them all home but it is possible to interplay with and support the agencies that support our people. That is very important. For those who are the most vulnerable and who were chased out of this country or felt that they had to leave for a better life and did not achieve that better life, we need to continue to advocate for them and tell them that we are here to support them through the established agencies that the Minister of State, his Department and the embassy work with in London. I wish to acknowledge the enormous work of our embassy in London and Martin Fraser. It is greatly encouraging what he is doing and we need more and more of that.