Cowen to push 2-year visa deal as US visit begins

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has announced a series of measures to revitalise the Irish-American relationship just as Ireland returns to headlines in the US for all the wrong reasons.

Mr Cowen will seek to progress plans for a renewable two-year working visa to ease the process for Irish citizens looking to work in the US and vice versa.

He pledged to keep working for a solution on the illegal Irish in the US, but any such deal remains fraught with difficulties and is likely to be some time off yet.