Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Reading through the conclusions of the European Council meeting in December, it is odd to see leaders of the 28 member states managing to avoid any reference to Brexit. I will return to that point at the end of my remarks.

As the Taoiseach has said, some discussion on this topic happened at the informal meeting of the EU 27. The first matter discussed at the European Council was migration. I would like to refer specifically to the perilous situation facing many unaccompanied minors. We have talked about that many times in this House. Indeed, we passed a cross-party motion focusing on the situation then obtaining in Calais in November. On 14 December, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, informed the House that she was bringing a memorandum to Government before Christmas on the issue of unaccompanied minors to establish a project office within Tusla to ensure that the commitment made by the House in the cross-party motion would be properly met.

I have seen media reports from earlier this month suggesting that the Cabinet did discuss this matter on 10 January. The House should now receive an update on exactly what progress the Government has made on the matter.

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