asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will lay before the House copies of his speech at the security conference in Helsinki in which he dealt with the question of the inviolability of frontiers.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Frontiers Inviolability.
16.
Yes. In response to the Deputy's request copies of this speech have now been placed in the Dáil Library.
In view of reports that have appeared of the alleged contents of the Minister's speech, will he make it clear that neither this House nor the Irish people have diminished their claim or their right to the claim that the boundary that exists between North and South is one we do not recognise and do not intend to recognise?
The Government are capable of formulating their own policy without using the terminology Deputy Blaney finds pleasant.
I and many others who have spoken to me on this subject are not at all clear about the terminology used by the Minister. Perhaps he could tell us the position more clearly now rather than using the waffling terminology that perhaps it was necessary to use in the company he was in when these discussions took place? The Government should make the position clear, in language that can be understood by the ordinary people.
The reference to the other 34 Foreign Ministers is scarcely diplomatic. However, if it helps the Deputy, I shall read out the relevant extract from my speech in Helsinki which is as follows: The Irish delegation——
Is it in order to use quotations at Question Time?
No. The Chair would prefer that we do not engage in quotations at Question Time.
Well, I have tried to be helpful.
If what the Minister has said outside the House is being questioned, surely it is in order to repeat what was said. It cannot be regarded as a quotation: it is merely a repetition of what he said before.
May I synopsise what I said?
Yes. Long quotations at Question Time cannot be allowed.
The Irish delegation took a leading role in seeking to secure that the phrase "immutability of frontiers" should not be employed in the agenda or emerge in any decisions or resolutions of the conference. The view of the Irish delegation, which I summarised in my speech, is that any such concept, which was pressed very hard by the Soviet Union and other eastern European countries, would be quite inappropriate to the circumstances of this country and, indeed, to some other countries, where frotiers existed that could and should be capable of being altered with the consent of the people and Governments concerned. We could not agree to any such frontiers being immutable.
May we take it from the Minister that we can be satisfied that nothing has been given away or that we have not sold out?
That is a very fair statement of the Government's policy.