asked the Minister for External Affairs why he refused permission to British naval authorities to hold a regatta for boy trainees in Bantry Bay in connection with the proposed visit of certain units of the British Navy to Irish waters.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - British Navy Trainees' Visit to Bantry.
My Department was approached in the usual way in connection with a proposed visit of a squadron of the British Navy to Glengarriff from the 6th to 9th June.
For the first time, so far as I am aware, the tentative programme for such a visit included an inshore regatta. Having considered the matter carefully, I decided that while I should follow the normal practice and authorise the usual type of visit, it would not be appropriate to invite the visiting squadron to hold a regatta.
Is it correct that the British Admiralty obtained permission for the ships, consisting of four sloops and a flagship, to visit Bantry Bay, for the crew to land there and take advantage of the ordinary facilities available in the vicinity and that it was only when the boy trainees proposed to hold a regatta that the permission previously accorded was withdrawn?
I think the Deputy is taking his information from a leading article in the Independent.
From a report in the Irish Independent of 6th June.
Which is quite inaccurate. As I told the Deputy in my question——
The Minister may be questioning me later on; at the moment, he is replying.
I am quite prepared to be questioned by Deputy O'Higgins on this or any other matter for which I have responsibility. I decided in this case that, while it was appropriate to invite the British squadron to pay the usual type of visit, it would not be appropriate to invite them to hold a regatta.
Do I understand the position to be that the Minister authorised the crews of these visiting ships to land at Bantry and, as I am informed, to pay a visit of 48 hours, and that, merely because a group of boys proposed to hold a regatta in Bantry Bay, the Minister withdrew his permission? Is that the position? If so, I should like to ask the Minister what was the objection to a group of boy trainees of the British, or any other, Navy exercising themselves in a regatta in Bantry Bay?
If the Deputy——
I have asked for information. The Minister has said he is willing to answer questions.
A good many people understand this situation and it does not matter how much the Deputy will try to misrepresent it, they will continue to understand it. There is a difficulty between ourselves and the British, a grave difficulty——
Between us and the British people?
Between ourselves and the British Government. There is a certain extent to which we can go according to the ordinary rules of international courtesy governing this type of visit, but we cannot, in our circumstances—and it would be unwise for us, because it would give the British people a wrong impression—go to the extent of inviting them to festivities of this kind. While we want to have the sort of relations with the British Government that would enable us to give such invitations, we are not in that position so long as they hold six of our counties against our will.
They are "welcome back to Bantry Bay," but not to take it over again.
Is the Deputy still moaning about our taking over the ports? I wonder if it is Fine Gael policy now that we hand back the ports?
(Interruptions.)
Order!