asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will outline the proposals, if any, he has for arriving at an accurate estimate of the number of Irish emigrants living illegally in the United States; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Illegal Irish Emigrants.
35.
The Central Statistics Office does not compile statistics on the number of Irish citizens who emigrate to specific destinations and consequently details are not available of the numbers that have emigrated to the United States. Even an accurate estimate is difficult because of the fact that many who emigrate to the US are out of status and do not feature in official US data. However, my Department are discussing with the CSO and the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service possible means of arriving at such an estimate.