TAOISEACH (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen announced last week during his first visit to the U.S. as Irish leader that a strategic assessment of the relationship between Ireland and the U.S. will be put in place immediately.The assessment includes seeking a solution to the issue of the estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish currently living here.Cowen told the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) during a meeting on Wednesday that he would consider a bilateral deal that would allow a number of Irish people to live and work legally in the U.S., and for the same number of American citizens to go to Ireland for the same period of time. The undocumented currently in the U.S. would have to return to Ireland for a short period, and return to the U.S. upon receiving a visa."We can perhaps be more proactive on our side in making sure that more Americans, particularly young people who want to come and visit and work in Ireland, that they get the chance to do so as well," said Cowen during a press briefing with reporters in New York on Wednesday.He added that Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin will be visiting the U.S. in September and that one of his priorities will be to lobby on behalf of the undocumented on Capitol Hill. "It's a priority for our administration to try and sort this out," Cowen said.Cowen, who addressed the Wall Street 50 awards dinner organized by the Irish Voice's sister publication, Irish America magazine, on Thursday evening at the New York Yacht Club, was upbeat about the relationship between Ireland and the U.S.. He promised to further that relationship and make it stronger by asking the ambassador to the U.S., Michael Collins to "review the relationship between Ireland and America.. and he (Collins) will report back to me by the end of this year," said Cowen.After an hour long meeting with ILIR on Wednesday, Cowen, who was responsible for setting up an Irish Abroad unit in the Department of Foreign Affairs while he was foreign affairs minister, told hundreds of guests at a reception held at the Irish Consulate in New York that he would make the issue of the Irish undocumented a "top priority" when he returns to Ireland. He mentioned the need to review the area in its entirety and find a solution as soon as possible.After meeting with the heads of the various immigration centers across the country on Wednesday, Cowen heard that not only were there thousands of undocumented Irish in each of their areas, but that more and more young people are coming to the U.S. on a daily basis due to the downturn in the Irish economy.The relationship between ILIR and former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who stood down in May, began to turn cold after Ahern said there was very little the Irish government could do to rectify the issue after the proposed Kennedy/McCain comprehensive reform bill failed to pass the Senate last summer. Cowen's interest and commitment to find a solution was welcomed by ILIR.Vice chairman of ILIR Ciaran Staunton told reporters Cowen was the man for the job. "Brian Cowen fully understands the issues," Staunton said."We've worked with Mr. Cowen before when he set up the task force on Irish immigrants. He knows his stuff, he knows this issue, and what we really like about him is that he really understands this whole idea of Irish America."Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Cowen said that although the Irish undocumented were a minority group in comparison to the other undocumented nationalities in the U.S., he said it was important to remember that "behind those statistics there's a human story in each individual case." In the past, he has met with many families who have children living in the United States and said he was very aware of the "difficult situations" these individuals are in. Speaking to the Irish Voice on Tuesday, former Congressman Bruce Morrison, now the lobbyist for ILIR on Capitol Hill, said that Cowen had a "comprehensive and personal understanding of the immigration issue." Morrison said he was impressed that Cowen was able to put the immigration issue in the context of the current economic relationship between Ireland and the U.S."It's just the right balance of what it will take to make it an arrangement attractive and workable," he feels.Morrison said that Cowen was "more than open" to the idea of undocumented "leaving the country and returning" model used in the late 1980s to obtain the Morrison and Donnelly visas."He understands that that mechanism really changes the discussion of who we are dealing with," he said."When people are here out of status they are illegal," explains Morrison. "When people have left they are not in illegal status. Obviously there needs to be waivers so it's not a catch 22 - you are gone and now you can't come back ... it can't be that.. but just like there were Donnelly and Morrison waivers it is not unprecedented. In fact it has a very clear precedence and the taoiseach understands that very well."