Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will follow up on some of the questions that have been asked. Regarding the status of the EU's migration and asylum pact, there was no agreement at the informal European Council meeting. Is it expected there will be agreement on that at the European Council meeting to be held later this month? The Taoiseach said very clearly after the informal meeting that we would not be taking quotas and would be paying into a fund, as Deputy Howlin has said. Did the Minister of State say a Government decision has not yet been made?

Would our general approach to this be that we are just not in a position to take a quota? We want to show solidarity but is the general thinking at this stage that we would pay into the fund, assuming it is all agreed?

Turning to enlargement, it was curious to see, and I was concerned to learn about, the Franco-German expert group. I did not know that expert groups presented papers to the General Affairs Council.