Can the Minister tell us why his representatives in Washington made no effort whatsoever to lobby Members of the United States Senate to ensure that the presence of those who have been in the United States without proper documentation or visas since 1982 can be legitimised?

It is not that we did not make an effort, we have been making very serious efforts over the past number of years as I said in my reply. The decision taken by Congress was that only those in the United States prior to 1982 should be amnestied.

The Minister appears to have missed my question. What I specifically asked was why his representatives in Washington did not actively become involved in lobbying Members of the Senate?

We did.

My information is that they did not.

Then, Deputy, your information is wrong, they did.

Is the Minister saying that the ambassador and his staff actively lobbied Members of the Senate to ensure that the deadline of 1982 would be brought forward?

We lobbied to see what could be done for all illegal immigrants but the Congress decided that an amnesty should apply only to those who were in the US prior to 1982.

Can the Minister say what his estimate is of the number of people from this country who have gone to the United States since 1982 and who do not have proper documentation to reside and work there?

I have no estimate. I do not know what the figure is. One sees various figures reported in the newspapers. I would not care to give an opinion as to which one is correct.

Does the Minister not think that it is his business to find out what this figure is as many families are greatly concerned about their children who are in the United States illegally? They would like to see the matter put right. They would like to see the Government and the Minister doing something positive about this. It is a very serious matter and do not one to be dismissed simply because it is not knocking at the Minister's front door.

I would not say that at all. If the Deputy thinks about his question he will find that any figure that can be given can only be an estimate. Anybody's estimate is as good as mine. Therefore, I do not propose to put an estimate on the record of this House as to what I think the figure is.

That is a ridiculous statement from the Minister. He has representatives in the United States. Surely, he can ask them to give him some idea of what the extent of the problem is or does he just want to forget about it?

I am not sure if that is worth replying to.