Vol. 503 No. 3
177 Mr. C. Lenihan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will contact the United States State Department in relation to the difficulty faced by certain former IRA inmates with regard to access rights to the USA and family members resident there. [9803/99]
In the context of the Good Friday Agreement, the approach of the Government has been to address in an imaginative, compassionate and generous way all questions relating to those who have been imprisoned in the context of the conflict in Northern Ireland, and we have urged friendly Governments to adopt a similar approach. Our views in this regard are well known to the United States Government, which has made such a sustained and significant contribution to the peace process in Northern Ireland.
As the Deputy will be aware, all countries control the entry onto their territory of foreign nationals. In the case of the United States, entry is subject to strict constraints laid down in legislation which allow little flexibility to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. However, taking into account in particular the humanitarian considerations to which the Deputy refers, I have asked our embassy in Washington to raise the specific concern of the Deputy with the US authorities. I will communicate directly with the Deputy as soon as possible to inform him of the outcome.
183 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on the resumption of pickets and the threat of pickets at Catholic churches in Harryville and Garvaghy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10052/99]
I am deeply concerned by the resumption of the pickets outside the Church of Our Lady in Harryville, Ballymena, and by the threat that pickets may be placed on St. John the Baptist Church in the Garvaghy Road area of Portadown.
The parishioners of Our Lady's in Harryville had already had to endure 20 months of harassment and intimidation at their place of worship. We believed and hoped that this had ended almost a year ago. Officials of my Department have discussed the situation with the British authorities through the framework of the Anglo-Irish Inter-Governmental Conference and will continue to monitor the situation closely. We have urged that the authorities in Northern Ireland take all necessary steps to ensure that people will be permitted once again to pray in peace, free from sectarian harassment.
The extension of this type of protest to yet another church would, of course, be an extremely worrying development. I note that a wide range of political opinion, including the Portadown Orange District Master, Mr. Harold Gracey, has expressed opposition to a picket on St. John the Baptist Church. I welcome these statements and hope that good sense and decency will prevail.
