Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Question 53: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the response he has had to any efforts he made in relation to the 242 families who were accorded temporary residence in the United States following the eruption of the volcano in Montserrat; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18482/05]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I refer the House to the replies I made on 8 March 2005 and 28 April 2005, respectively. I understand that the current position is that efforts to secure a deferral in any enforced departures among the Montserrat group continue to be made in the US Congress. Any decision on this is a matter for the US authorities but, as I have previously said, we very much appreciate the humanitarian impulse underlying the initiative taken in this case by Senator Edward Kennedy and his colleagues.