Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 58: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the action he is taking regarding a visa agreement between Ireland and the USA. [15760/12]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Enabling Irish people to apply for E-3 temporary US work visas has been a particular focus of the Government's efforts in the context of our overall ongoing exchanges with the US Administration and Congress on immigration-related issues. The Deputy can be assured that my Department, including the Embassy in Washington, is extremely proactive in pursuit of this goal. The Taoiseach and I discussed immigration issues with President Obama when we met him on 23 May last year in Dublin. I also did so in separate exchanges I had during the course of 2011 with Secretary of State Clinton and Senator Patrick Leahy, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. During my recent visits to Washington and New York, I reviewed progress on E-3 issues during further separate contacts with Deputy Secretary Bill Burns of the US State Department and with Senator Leahy, Senator Scott Brown and Senator Charles Schumer and members of the Friends of Ireland group at House of Representatives level. Additional contacts with the Senators in question were also taking place this week in the context of the Taoiseach's visit to Washington DC for St. Patrick's Day-related events. Senators Schumer, Leahy and Durbin and Senators Brown and Kirk previously tabled draft Bills which would enable the provision of E-3 visas to Irish applicants. Both Bills have since been referred for examination by the US Senate's Judiciary Committee. In all our exchanges with them, the Government has thanked the Senators for their ongoing efforts in this regard and encouraged them to persist towards reaching a positive outcome. They have been assured of the Government's continuing close interest and support in this connection, which we are exercising through our Embassy in Washington. I discussed the issue in detail with the Congressional delegation, led by leader Nancy Pelosi, during its visit to Dublin on 12 March.

The Embassy is working in tandem with key stakeholder groups from throughout the Irish-American community. The Taoiseach met representatives of several of these groups, including the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Chicago Celts for Immigration Reform and the Coalition of Irish Immigration Centres, in New York recently. He acknowledged and thanked all these groups and others from within Irish-America for their vital help and support in rallying momentum behind our collective efforts. I am heartened by the advances that have been made so far towards enabling Irish people to apply for E-3 visas. However, together with our friends and allies on Capitol Hill and among the Irish-American community, I am conscious that the current US domestic political climate around immigration issues and the Presidential elections taking place there later this year mean nothing can be taken for granted. While developments in relation to E-3 visas are positive in relation to future flows of emigration to the United States, I am very much aware of the difficulties confronting undocumented Irish citizens and the distress which they and their families in the US and Ireland experience arising from their situation. I urge anybody who might be tempted to follow in the footsteps of the undocumented to take account of their plight and to refrain from seeking entry to the US for work purposes without having first acquired relevant visa clearance.