asked the Taoiseach if he will state whether he has received a communication from a public representative of our six occupied northeastern counties, requesting the provision of a courtesy right of audience in Dáil Éireann to a representative from that area in order to put before the House the views of the people of the occupied area in regard to the recent debate on Partition which took place in the House, and, if so, whether he proposes to accede to the request.
Ceisteann—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dáil Audience for Six-County M.P.
The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative: the text of the letter to which the Deputy refers was released to the newspapers simultaneously with its dispatch to me. In my reply, which I sent on the 9th instant, I informed the representative concerned that the Government took the view that the suggestion made in his letter had implicitly—if not, indeed, explicitly—been determined by the recent decision of this House in connection with the question of audience for Six-County representatives.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I would like to raise this matter on the Adjournment.
I will communicate with the Deputy in the course of the afternoon.
May I ask the Taoiseach if he is aware that the public representative referred to in the question is the Chairman of the Anti-Partition League Parliamentary Party in the Six Counties; secondly, whether he is prepared, in view of the importance of this request, to make time available to enable the Dáil to consider whether the Dáil is prepared to grant the Chairman of the Anti-Partition Parliamentary Party an opportunity of addressing this House?
In reply to the first part of Deputy MacBride's supplementary question, I would say that the public representative concerned wrote to me and did not say that he was writing in his capacity as Chairman of the Anti-Partition Parliamentary Party, to which the Deputy has referred. I am, of course, aware that he occupies that position.
The second part of the supplementary question does not appear to me to arise and, in any event, I do not think the Government, having regard to the full discussion that has already taken place here, would be prepared to give time.