Vol. 441 No. 6
9 Mrs. Owen asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will lobby the United States Congress to ensure the passage of Congressman McCloskey's amendment to the Technical Corrections Bill (Immigration and Nationality Act) HR 783 which will result in the waiving of visa requirements for all EU countries including Ireland for visits of 90 days or less.
24 Mr. McGinley asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will lobby in the United States to have the legislation to remove the visa requirement for Irish citizens to visit the United States for 90 days or less passed and implemented by September 1994.
44 Mr. E. Kenny asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will lobby in the United States to have the legislation to remove the visa requirement for Irish citizens to visit the United States for 90 days or less passed and implemented by September 1994.
60 Mr. Yates asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will lobby in the United States to have the legislation to remove the visa requirement for Irish citizens to visit the United States for 90 days or less passed and implemented by September 1994.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 9, 24, 44 and 60 together.
The US Immigration Reform and Control Act, 1986, provides for a visa waiver pilot programme under which nationals of foreign countries with relatively low visa refusal and overstay rates are allowed to visit the US for up to 90 days without the need to obtain a visa in advance. The operation of the pilot programme, which ends on 30 September 1994, will be reviewed by Congress before that date.
Ireland has not so far been admitted to the programme because we do not comply with the provision relating to visa refusals. Under the terms of the 1986 Act, the refusal rate for non-immigrant visa applications in the previous two year period must be less than 2 per cent and less than 2.5 per cent in each of the two years. While the refusal rate for Irish citizens has been reduced in recent years, it remains above the limits specified in the Act.
As Deputies are aware, Congressmen Frank McCloskey and Ronald Machtley recently published a Bill which would amend the 1986 Act to ensure Ireland's inclusion in the pilot programme. The Government is very anxious to secure Ireland's inclusion in the programme and we are lobbying actively, with our friends in Congress, in pursuit of this objective. We will do all we can to build support for the McCloskey-Machtley Bill to maximise its prospects of adoption before September. I intend to avail of every opportunity over the coming months to press our case for inclusion in the programme and it is my intention to have discussions with the US authorities at a high level on the issue.
Is the Minister aware that two amendments have been tabled by Congressman McCloskey? The purpose of one is to remove the need for Irish, Portuguese and Greek citizens to seek a visa while the purpose of the other is to waive this requirement for Irish citizens only as the refusal rate for Portuguese and Greek citizens is higher. This year they expect to give out 80,000 B1 and B2 visas to Irish citizens. Would the Tánaiste not agree, therefore, that the removal of the requirement for a visa will cut down on the great workload in the American Embassy and also save the time and trouble of 80,000 Irish citizens making applications? In his lobbying will he raise two final points about visas? An anomaly has arisen in regard to the Morrison visas whereby if Irish people discover they were actually born in England they are refused a visa from the Irish allocation, although residency in England may have been for only two or three weeks. The second point relates to Irish university students who, having won their Morrison visas and having gone to activate them in the early part of their university career, cannot come back to Ireland because they are supposed to take up residency. Will the Minister secure some regulation to allow those students to finish their courses here?
I can speak on this subject with a fair degree of experience. The McCloskey-Machtley Bill is a limited one which will apply to Ireland only. The three European Union countries currently excluded are Greece, Portugal and Ireland. There have been previous attempts to amend the 1986 legislation and secure admission for all three countries. The chairman of the US House Emigration Committee, Congressman Mazzoli, tried in 1991 to have an amendment adopted. He was, unfortunately, unsuccessful. In fairness, it has to be said that the US Embassy has increased its staff massively to cope with the visa applications. We will do everything possible. We have been successful in the past in relation to the Morrison visas and in this case it is hoped we can make progress as quickly as possible. There is a problem in regard to Morrison visa applicants who were born in England or Northern Ireland. We are trying to sort that out and are getting very healthy co-operation from the American Embassy. In regard to students, I do not have the information in front of me, but I will get it and come back to the Deputy.
