I welcome our young guests to the Gallery. Ireland has one of the world's most open economies but it also has one of the world's most open societies. One in eight people living in this country was not born here. Many vibrant cultures and ethnic communities make valuable contributions right across the island. Membership of the European Union has widened the horizons of many people in Ireland, not least students who take part in the ERASMUS programme. Membership of the EU is not just about enjoying the benefits, however, it is also about taking shared responsibility for our part of the world and pooling our efforts into common solutions for the problems we collectively face.

We have enjoyed EU-wide solidarity for Ireland's real concerns about Brexit and we have just heard about that again. Just last week, EU Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, reiterated in this House the community solidarity and support for Ireland. However, Brexit is not the only issue being discussed at the current European Council. In fact, it is sixth on the agenda. Migration will be the first issue to be discussed by the Heads of State in Brussels. Our European partners are seeking to develop a comprehensive approach to migration, asylum seeking and control of the EU's external borders.

The issue of migration should also be of concern to us. Many lives have been lost as desperate people seek to cross the Mediterranean, some fleeing war or abuse, others simply seeking a better life as many thousands of Irish people did for generations. Politically, we need to be at the heart of the EU when it comes to a humane response to these issues. I have previously called for a Marshall plan for Europe's neighbourhood, to develop the economies in countries surrounding us in the Middle East and Africa. In the short term, that would make the hazardous migration journeys less attractive and, in the long term, it would be in our interests in terms of expanding and growing trade. Meanwhile, we need to show leadership on migration, integration and asylum right here and now in Ireland. We cannot lecture others if we do not set things right here. Too many people have had their lives put on hold for years as they struggle with the administrative barriers to full naturalisation in Ireland. Given the scale of the migration crisis, it is time to take the action we need and to take it urgently.

I have two questions for the Tánaiste. Does the Government agree that it is now time for a once-off general amnesty to take the few thousand people in direct provision off what is, by common consensus, an ineffective and inhumane system and to allow them to regularise their lives and work in Ireland? Does the Government agree that we should do what we have spent years urging the United States Government to do for the undocumented Irish, which is to regularise the situation of undocumented migrants here in Ireland?

There were a lot of questions there.

There were only two.

Let us see if the Tánaiste can answer one of them.

Deputy Howlin also made a lot of comments. I am in very strong agreement with what he said regarding Africa in particular. I have been making a very similar case at EU Council Foreign Affairs meetings. The EU relationship with Africa needs to be the big new idea in the context of the future of Europe and its external policy. We are going to witness a population growth of about an extra 1 billion people on that continent in the next 25 to 30 years. Given the strains that Africa currently faces in the context of water security, food security, climate change, conflict, migration, political challenges and regional conflicts, the only way the EU can act responsibly is to dramatically increase its levels of ambition, politically as well as financially. We should partner with Africa, rather than see it as a charity case. Real, integrated partnership is the only way these issues will be solved in a manner that avoids a dramatic crisis in the future arising from the mass movement of people.

As for the issues being discussed today, there will be a lot of debate on trying to get a collective agreement on the EU approach to migration. I hope this will involve burden-sharing across the EU in order to ensure that Italy and other Mediterranean countries are not isolated and asked to carry an unfair share of the burden because of their geographic location. I hope it will involve generosity, adherence to international law and accepted international humanitarian standards. I hope it will also bring some predictability and order to how we collectively manage migration, which is clearly something of which many electorates in Europe are frightened. These things are not easy to overcome, particularly in light of the difference of approach and perspective in the countries of the European Union.

From an Irish perspective, we need to lead by example and, today, the Taoiseach will offer a significant increase in Irish funding for an EU central fund for Africa. He will provide more detail on the immediate assistance we are giving to Malta to accept 10% of the migrants on the ship currently there. We are changing our own domestic approach towards asylum and direct provision and we are now allowing people who have been waiting for asylum decisions for nine months to work. That means thousands of people will now be able to enter the workforce and that will be good for integration and well-being, as well as in a whole range of other areas.

The Deputy made a request for a once-off general amnesty but this would probably send out the wrong signal right now. We need to bring order, management and good systems that are fair to everybody in the context of asylum applications and that is what we should focus on.

I welcome the Tánaiste's views in respect of the big idea, that is, a major initiative for Europe's neighbourhood, particularly on a new Marshall plan for Africa. This is really good and we should be leading on the issue. We should also be willing to contribute significantly to it. Our moral authority to argue on any of these issues is greatly diminished as long as we have patently inadequate facilities for dealing with migrants into this country. I do not agree that it would send out the wrong signal - something I have heard on many occasions - to regularise the few thousand people involved. The number is, in comparison with what Spain, Italy, Greece or Malta is receiving, minuscule. It would end direct provision and deal with people expeditiously as they arrive from now on.

We should also regularise the undocumented, many of whom, or whose parents, we invited here. For example, the Mauritians who came to work here, or their children, should now be regularised. If our moral authority in asking the Americans to regularise the Irish undocumented is to have any force, we must do that.

We are giving leadership on the EU-Africa issue and hopefully in the autumn I will be visiting Africa with the German Minister. Germany has a very similar approach to Ireland on this issue and we need big countries and big economies to back this type of thinking if we are to fund any project addressing the neighbourhood relationship we are to have with that continent. A big part of the migration response needs to be how we invest in, and partner with, the source countries for many of the migrants who are looking to come to Europe at the moment.

I have a very liberal approach to migration generally. However, I also believe that we have to have systems which provide certainty-----

We do not have such a system. People have been waiting years for decisions.

-----as opposed to relying on amnesties. We need faster turnaround times for decisions and we need generosity, openness and transparency in terms of how those decisions are made. The signal we need to send to other European countries, and to the Irish people, is that we need a fair and generous system, that makes decisions quickly.