There are estimated to be around 10,000 undocumented Irish migrants in the United States and I am sure that when the Taoiseach meets President Trump tomorrow he will raise that issue. He will probably argue rightly that most Irish in America are taxpaying, law-abiding and hard-working people. They have contributed much more to the American economy than they have asked from it. However, because their papers are not in order, they cannot travel. or visit relatives. They cannot even come home to attend funerals. Some of them have children who were born into this administrative limbo. Labour Party policy, which I understand is also Government policy, is that these Irish people should have their migrant status regularised. Why can we not do the same for the taxpaying, law-abiding, hard-working people who are undocumented in Ireland? It is estimated that a few thousand adult workers here have irregular status. Will the Government ask the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, and the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Humphreys, to work together on a joined-up policy to provide regular migration status to all those workers?

We all know that we currently lack a sufficient, quick and responsive migration system. Some employers can be tempted to cut corners and, therefore, responsible employers will lose out. We have low unemployment, thankfully, and employers in many sectors are crying out for workers. Those workers are already here, working and housed. There is little economic cost and much to be gained by allowing these people to be regularised in the same way we are asking the United States to regularise our people. As the Tánaiste will know, these workers are often the mainstay of the agricultural and hospitality sectors and care work, looking after our vulnerable people. This can be low-paid, precarious work sometimes and those are matters we have to address too. Will the Government, therefore, introduce a scheme with the publication of clear criteria so that workers can get their migration status regularised?

In addition, we have a generation of our own dreamers, to borrow a phrase coined by President Obama, namely, children born or brought up in Ireland, some of whom are now approaching adulthood but who are denied basic rights and opportunities that all citizens of this country take for granted, for example, attending college, because their parents have irregular status. We are talking about a few thousand young people and children. Ireland needs a growing population. There is no economic cost to regularising their current status, only gain and moral good. Will the Government undertake to create a mechanism so that children born and raised here who have gone to school here, and those who were raised here but born abroad, can regularise their status and contribute fully and in safety to this nation?

On the points the Deputy makes in respect of undocumented Irish, I am sure that is an issue that will be raised by the Taoiseach with the President of the United States tomorrow. It has been raised every year for a number of years. We have been looking for legislative vehicles that could allow that to happen in a way that would protect Irish people in the United States who are undocumented. It is not easy in the current political environment on migration on Capitol Hill, which has led to a very divisive debate between the two parties there. We are very close to securing agreement on an E3 visa facilitation for Ireland by which unused visas arising from a legal arrangement and relationship between the US and Australia would be used. That measure would have passed if one Senator had not decided to block it. We want to continue to try to find a way of getting that done. That work for Irish America and Irish people in America continues and would also facilitate a new generation of young Irish people who want to be part of the US story to do that in the future in a way that is legal, controlled and managed.

In respect of regularising workers who are undocumented here, we have had a conversation on this matter in Cabinet. This is not an easy thing to get right. It is particularly difficult in the context of agreements and debates that have been had across the European Union where we are trying to get consistency in terms of how we deal with undocumented individuals, asylum seekers and so on. It has to be viewed in that context, rather than Ireland doing its own thing entirely. Having said that, we need to try to be consistent in terms of what we are asking for Irish citizens abroad and the way we treat foreign nationals here in Ireland. We also have to be consistent in terms of how we treat families so that we do not create conditions whereby parents are being asked to leave the country, while their children, in theory, are being allowed to stay and, in doing so, breaking up or separating families. These are not easy issues to resolve, but I take the point the Deputy is making. I reassure him that the Cabinet has had discussions on them in recent months.

I am sure the Tánaiste will agree with me that it would be hypocrisy for the Government to engage in special pleading for Irish people in America - pleading in Congress and to the United States President - while doing little to address exactly the same concerns of migrants to this State whose status is irregular. The notion that we cannot deal with that ourselves is not right. Other nations in the European Union have done so. To be clear, I am asking the Government to establish an administrative scheme, which can be carefully defined and monitored, to allow adult migrant workers to attain the right paperwork to remain here. I am also asking the Government to introduce a fair and transparent mechanism and to set out rules so that children born or brought up in circumstances where they have irregular migration status can have their situation regularised here too. Will the Tánaiste today, before the meeting tomorrow between our representatives and the American Administration, say that he will do that?

No. I will not say today that I will do that without being able to follow through properly.

I have stated that the Government is considering this issue. I take the Deputy's point and do not disagree but amnesties can be a dangerous space.

It is a process of regularisation.

What is required is to examine ways in which people who are working in, and contributing to, the economy and who want to stay here can potentially find a pathway to legitimising their position with the documentation to back that up. The Minister is willing to look at that but it needs to be managed in a way that does not give the impression that Ireland is looking at amnesties or that creates a potentially unwelcome pull factor of which we need to take account. Having said that, there needs to be consistency between what we ask of other countries in their treatment Irish citizens and how we treat foreign nationals here who are part of our society and the economy.