By Debbie McGoldrick

In his most forthright comments about a bilateral visa deal to date, Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern confirmed last week that his government will seek a reciprocal arrangement with the U.S. government to secure an annual flow of workers between the two countries.

Speaking at a press gathering at the Irish Consulate in New York last Friday, Ahern said that the robust Irish economy is in need of workers, but acknowledged the difficulty that Americans have in securing legal access to Ireland.

“We are looking at ways of filling the need with some mechanism which will allow people to move not in huge numbers but in realistic numbers,” Ahern said. “We are working on this issue.”

“We are conscious of the need to not look just at the undocumented issue, but also the wider issue of legal access, when you consider that there are 90,000 people in Ireland working in American companies.”

Ahern said that recent statistics he received from Bloomberg headquarters in New York indicated that 70,000 Americans work in Irish-owned companies in the U.S., and that several U.S. firms, Bloomberg included, have indicated expansion plans that will take them to Ireland. Having a bilateral visa deal in place, the minister added, would help facilitate such growth.

“I think given the quite clear desire of American people to go to Ireland to work, and given the opportunities that there are in Ireland, we would welcome people to come. It is relatively restrictive in that respect, and that is something we are actively looking at.”

A bilateral visa deal has been considered by the Irish government for some time, but prior to last week’s election results the primary focus has been securing comprehensive immigration reform which would legalize the status of the estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish in the U.S.

Now that the Democrats have taken control of the House and Senate, the undocumented have a much greater chance of becoming legal through an overall reform package, which would make it easier for the Irish government also pursue a bilateral deal which would focus solely on future emigration between the two countries.

“We believe now that we are the most open economy in the world and there is huge opportunity,” Ahern said. “All the major multinationals are working out of Ireland and they need people to come in and fill vacancies.”

Ahern also expressed confidence that any U.S.-Ireland bilateral deal would be able to comply with European Union regulations. “There are difficult issues because there are some restrictions in relation to negotiations within an EU context. We just can’t bilaterally do these things,” he said.

Speaking about the renewed prospects for immigration reform when the new Congress convenes in January, Ahern said, “I think that both sides need to look at this issue again, and we’ll be as much as we can from our side pushing all the right buttons.

“From our point of view it makes (reform) more realistic. But there’s a fair bit to go yet in relation to reform, even in the Democratic Party where there are different views on the immigration issue and we’re conscious of that. But I do think people have to take it calmly and cautiously and work out our strategy.”

Ahern assured that the government would continue to work first and foremost on legalizing those Irish already here.

“There will be renewed activity now that the election is over,” he said. “We always understood that this issue was going to be parked until after the election, and I think we also understood that in the lame duck probably not a lot would happen.

“I think it’s a changed circumstance that I think will lead to new opportunity for us to move this onto the agenda.”

Ireland’s main opposition party, Fine Gael, also praised the U.S. election results.

“The outcome of the U.S. midterm elections has been heartening and suggests that voters in the U.S. have had a change of attitude and may be more open-minded on immigration than was originally thought,” said the party’s emigrant affairs spokesperson, Paul Connaughton.

“It is encouraging that the Democrat Party supports the Kennedy/McCain legislation which offers the undocumented Irish a real prospect of legalizing their status in the U.S. Perhaps with the Democrats in the driving seat we may see this legislation pushed through both houses.”

Connaughton also urged the Irish government to push for a bilateral deal.

“I am also reiterating our call for the minister for foreign affairs to seek to negotiate a working visa exchange program between Ireland and the U.S. This would regularize the status of undocumented Irish emigrants in the U.S., but would equally expand the opportunities for U.S. citizens to also live and work here.”