asked the Minister for External Affairs whether his Department received a communication from Limerick Corporation requesting that Limerick be included in President Kennedy's itinerary during his visit to this country; at what date the Department received this communication; if any acknowledgment or reply was sent to Limerick Corporation; and at what date it was sent.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Visit of President Kennedy to Limerick.
2.
The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative.
The answer to the other part of the question is that a communication was received in my Department on the 25th April, 1963 and was acknowledged by telephone and that I saw the Mayor of Limerick and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance in relation to the matter in my office on the 1st May and again at Shannon Airport on the 14th June.
That communication was sent from the Limerick Corporation on 23rd April, with a suggestion that President Kennedy be invited to Limerick for the conferring on him of the freedom of the city. No communication or acknowledgement has been received since——
Would the Deputy ask a question?
——and we consider that a city of the importance of Limerick has been slighted. I want to know why that communication from the Limerick Corporation was not given the courtesy of a reply.
I think my reply answers the Deputy's supplementary question. The city of Limerick elected a Lord Mayor and I have been in communication with the Lord Mayor ever since I got the letter.
In the first place, Limerick has not got a Lord Mayor but a Mayor. When the Mayor of Limerick contacted the Secretary of the Department, no reply was received up to a month afterwards. As a result, the Mayor had to go personally to the Department.
Three days after receipt of the letter, I saw the Mayor of Limerick.
They must not be on talking terms down there.