Vol. 203 No. 8
asked the Taoiseach whether he now has any proposals to put before the Dáil in relation to the visit to Leinster House of President Kennedy; whether he has seen a report purporting to describe the procedure to be followed; and whether he has caused any investigation to be carried out into the circumstances in which this information, which has not yet been revealed to the Dáil, came to be published.
5.
andMr. McQuillan asked the Taoiseach whether he has seen a report of 13th June relating to the reception of President Kennedy; and whether the information contained in this report was furnished from Government sources.
With your permission, Sir, I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 and 5 together.
Proposals in relation to this matter were transmitted by my Department to the Clerk of the Dáil on Wednesday last, the 12th instant, with a view to having them circulated to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, for consideration by the Committee. I intend to move an appropriate motion in this House on Thursday next.
I have seen the newspaper report referred to. The information contained in it was not furnished from Government sources, and accordingly I do not intend to institute an investigation into the circumstances in which the report was published.
Is the Taoiseach suggesting that this information was leaked from sources other than Government sources?
I am saying it did not come from Government sources.
Is it the imputation that information which was conveyed in strict confidence to other sources was leaked from those sources and not from Government sources?
I am not making any allegations of that sort.
It is the inference to be drawn from the Taoiseach's answer.
Is it not a fact that a document was circulated to myself, the Leader of the Labour Party and certain other persons, the contents of which were understood to be confidential? Is the Taoiseach aware that I informed pressmen that such a document was in my possession, that I could not communicate its contents to anyone, and that on the following morning in the columns of the Government newspaper——
There is no such thing as a Government newspaper.
The Taoiseach knows the paper to which I am referring— there appeared a fully detailed report of the document which I had been describing the previous day as being so confidential that I could not communicate even one syllable of it to any member of the Press?
Lest there should be any misunderstanding, I should like to point out that as far as I am concerned, there was no breach of confidence in respect of this particular document.
Will the Taoiseach say, in view of the answers given by the Leaders of the Labour Party and Fine Gael, that there was no disclosure by either group of what this document contained, how he can reconcile that position with the fact that on one page of the Irish Press a similar statement was published as being made by Deputy Corish and Deputy Dillon that this was a secret document and on an inside page, the document itself was published? In view of the close association between this newspaper and the Fianna Fáil Party, will the Taoiseach now say which member of his Party or of the Cabinet disclosed this alleged secret information to the Irish Press?
And for what?
I accept without question the assurances given by the Leader of the Fine Gael Party and the Leader of the Labour Party and I expect that there will be equal acceptance of my assurance that there was no transmission of this document by the Government, or any member, or any organ of the Government, to any newspaper and as a matter of fact, the only reason——
You did not learn much manners when you were away.
——I rejected this suggestion of inquiry is that I do not think it is of a moment's importance. On the day before the document appeared in the newspaper referred to, some two dozen copies of the document had been sent to the Dáil Office for the Committee on Procedure and Privileges.
Is the Taoiseach aware that not one of those copies was circulated to any member of the Committee until after the publication appeared?
I understand that to be correct.
Therefore, it could not have been any member of the Committee.
I did not suggest it was.
I do not want it said by implication either.
I put down a question last week and I was refused information on Wednesday, but the Government organ could publish complete details on the following morning. Is it not obvious that what is happening——
If I thought it was of a moment's importance, I would have the investigation. Furthermore, there is no such thing as a Government paper or any paper controlled by the Fianna Fáil Party.
Go back and look after your shares.
