Nollaig shona, Tánaiste. Happy Christmas to you-----

Thank you.

-----to the staff and to your little helpers, the elves and gnomes of Fianna Fáil.

This is from the teddy bear party.

You never know, you could get a little bit of mistletoe and kiss and make up.

I wish to ask the Tánaiste for an update on the all-party motion that we passed to accept 200 unaccompanied minors from France. Will she give the House a sense of the timeframe for this process? I know she has been active on it. I heard it reported that the Attorney General advised that a special legal programme might be necessary under the Refugee Act. Will she briefly give the House a sense of where all that is at?

A very happy Christmas to you, Deputy. I hope that was not an afterthought.

I met the French Minister on the motion passed in the Dáil. A group of officials will be travelling to France shortly to have discussions on the programme. It is possible under the Refugee Act to designate a special programme to make sure there is a legal mechanism for unaccompanied minors to come into this country from France. French officials are identifying unaccompanied children in France, who will be mostly between the ages of 16 and 18 and primarily from Eritrea, Somalia and Afghanistan. The Minister for Children and Youth affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, will be working with Tusla to see what provision can be made here for accommodation for those young people. Obviously, the programme will have to start with a smaller group and see how it develops.