Thousands of Irish citizens living unlawfully in the United States could be legalised in return for more work permits for US citizens lured to Ireland by its thriving economy, the Minister for Labour Affairs Tony Killeen has said.
"There is clear evidence to support the establishment of some form of bilateral agreement between the US and Irish governments," he said in a statement after he returned from a trip to New York.
Minister for Labour Affairs Tony Killeen
Mr Killeen said that, while 30,000 to 40,000 illegal Irish immigrants were living in the US, two centuries of mass emigration to the US from Ireland because of famine and unemployment was clearly now at an end.
More than 4,300 Americans immigrated to Ireland in search of work last year, compared with 1,700 Irish people moving to the US, where more than ten per cent of the population claims Irish descent.
Mr Killeen said a jobs fair in New York showed how appealing Ireland had become in the wake of the "Celtic Tiger" boom.
"The interest expressed by Americans to come and work in Ireland was so great that a queue more than two-and-a-half blocks long formed outside the exhibition venue," he said.
"In less than 15 years, Ireland has gone from being the sick man of Europe to one of the most dynamic economies in the developed world."
Mr Killeen told the media in New York last week that Ireland would also try to lure Irish and US citizens back to Ireland where the population is now back above four million, having slumped to a 120-year low of 2.8 million in the 1960s.