Call for Government to ‘reset’ priorities on Irish-American issues

A prominent Irish-American organisation has said there is a need for “stronger advocacy” in Washington on Irish issues, calling on the Department of Foreign Affairs to “reset” its priorities.

The call was issued by the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), which bills itself as the largest Irish organisation outside the country.

“We believe there’s a need for stronger advocacy in Washington on Irish-American issues and for Irish people living in the US. That view, I believe, is shared by the Irish-American community across the US,” Danny O’Connell, president of the AOH, said.

It is understood the intervention is driven by misgivings over recent diplomatic strategies, which sources say they fear focused on marquee policies like winning a seat on the UN security council and fell victim to controversies such as the Zappone affair.

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Meanwhile, they fear advocacy on issues such as the system for US work visa applications has suffered.

The group has hired former Fine Gael TD John Deasy as its head of government affairs. He previously worked with the group on visa issues.

Mr Deasy is also a former government special envoy to the US, where he worked on the issue of undocumented Irish, after being appointed by Leo Varadkar in 2017.

‘Manufactured outrage’

Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Deasy said there had been a lot of “manufactured outrage” over the champagne party controversy currently affecting the Department of Foreign Affairs, but he took aim at the department, saying: “It’s fair to say the view in America is that the new management team need to get the department back to basics.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr Deasy, who will be based in Dublin, has previously worked with the order on a lobbying effort to secure access for Irish citizens to the E3 visa programme. “We need to do more to help Irish people looking to work in the US, they’re finding it increasingly hard to get a work visa, even when they’ve a company willing to sponsor them,” he said.

Mr O’Connell said while his group had a strong relationship with the Department of Foreign Affairs, it believes “it’s time to reset the priorities for Irish America and hope we can assist them in doing that”.