andMr. McQuillan asked the Taoiseach whether any final decision has been taken by the Government that the name of what was formerly known as the Six Counties must or shall be officially described as Northern Ireland.
2.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Six County Area: Government Decisions.
1.
andMr. McQuillan asked the Taoiseach whether the Government have given any consideration to or arrived at any decision on the question of giving formal or official recognition to the Government in Northern Ireland, with its consequent implications.
I propose, with your permission, to take Questions No. 1 and No. 2 together.
The answer to both questions is in the negative.
In view, however, of recent Press speculations as to the attitude of the Government in this connection, I think it is desirable to make a fuller statement.
We do not recognise the partitioning of the country as a just or durable arrangement. Our purpose is to bring about a situation in which the essential unity of the Irish people will be restored and expressed in the country's political institutions.
Proposals put forward by the Government of the Republic in 1921 dealt with these matters. These proposals were to the effect that, in the event of the then existing Legislature in Northern Ireland accepting its position under an Irish National Parliament, that Legislature would be confirmed in its existing powers—in other words, that the Parliament and Government there should continue to function and to exercise the powers they already possessed, while the powers exercised in relation to that area by the British Parliament would be transferred to an all-Ireland Parliament.
On many occasions since then the possibility of a settlement of the Partition issue on these lines, subject to safeguards for the nationalist minority there, has been re-stated, and I have done so again in recent months.
In so far as such an arrangement would involve the continuance of a separate Parliament with its existing powers and functions in the North-East—which area would also, of course, be represented in an all-Ireland Parliament—the title "The Parliament of Northern Ireland", notwithstanding its geographical inaccuracy, would not, in my opinion, if there was a desire to retain it, raise any insuperable difficulty.
The Taoiseach must be aware that it has been the consistent policy for some 40 years of his predecessor to describe the present Government in Northern Ireland as the Government of the six North Eastern Counties. Recently Government spokesmen have adopted the formula "Northern Ireland Government". Does he propose to continue the description "Government of the Six North Eastern Counties" or "Northern Ireland Government" in future?
I think that is the same question as is on the Order Paper, which I have answered.
Not at all.
Over the weekend the Taoiseach gave a third description, that is, "the North-Eastern part of Ireland." Is that to be a third form of description for the present position in Northern Ireland?
A very accurate geographical description.
I know. We are dealing with the description of what calls itself a State. Would the Taoiseach say what is to be the official designation of this part of Ireland in future?
I think that is the question that is on the Order Paper.