The Foreign Affairs Minister is warning Irish emigrants not to raise their expectations too high about changes to US immigration law.

However, Charlie Flanagan adds that the measures announced by Barack Obama will see many Irish people able to visit home for the first time in years.

Last night the White House released a letter from the Taoiseach, thanking the US President for his moves.

In the Dáil today Minister Flanagan says the moves are long-overdue, but not to raise expectations too highly:

In the letter, the Taoiseach writes that he has shared with Obama "some of the heartbreaking stories – parents dying without seeing their children, funerals unattended, family milestones missed.”

“May I repeat my earlier pleas that the arrangements be as open and flexible as possible. Our embassy will stay in the closest touch with your team as these arrangements are fine-tuned," he added.

Describing the current system as "broken", Obama laid out the most sweeping changes to immigration laws in nearly 30 years during an address at the White House last week.

The plan would mean migrants living illegally would be given work permits to save them from being ejected from the country - although it would leave millions more in limbo.

Under the changes, those who had been in the US for at least five years would be able to apply legally for jobs and join American society, but not vote or qualify for insurance under the president's healthcare law.

An additional 270,000 people would be eligible for relief under the expansion of a 2012 move by Mr Obama to stop deporting people brought illegally to the US as children by their parents.

He said that in the absence of cross-party consensus on reform, he would use executive powers in the same way his predecessors had in order to force the changes through.