With your permission a Cheann Comhairle, I would like to make a statement to the House.
As the House will be aware, my wife and I were invited recently by President and Mrs Ford to pay an official visit to the United States in connection with the celebration of the bicentennial of the American Declaration of Independence. I was accompanied during different parts of the visit by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Industry and Commerce.
I should like now to place on record in this House our appreciation of the President's action in extending this invitation and of the generosity and efficiency of the arrangements made for our work and comfort. Everywhere the sympathy and understanding extended to us were most marked—and nowhere more so than at the meeting in the White House where the President, with the Secretary of State, met the Minister for Foreign Affairs and I. Indeed, the visit added a new dimension to relations between our two countries.
I had the opportunity of discussing with the President and American leaders many problems of common concern, including international political developments and economic matters. I used the occasion to indicate the appreciation felt by the people of Ireland for what America had done and for the principles for which America stands in the world today. I said, in particular, that the Government welcomed American investment in Ireland and pointed to the benefits to our two countries which accrued from it.
I discussed also with the President relations between the United States and the European Economic Community and certain possible dangers to those relations. We both agreed on the importance of close consultations and co-operation between the United States and the Community.
During the discussion with the President and throughout the visit, I took the opportunity of explaining the situation in Northern Ireland and the Government's policy in relation to that area. I stressed in particular the repudiation of the Government and of the people of Ireland of violence as a means of attaining political ends. We appealed to the American and Irish people to refrain from supporting with financial or other aid, this violence.
I invited the President to visit Ireland at a mutually agreeable time in the future and the President accepted the invitation.
During my visit, I was invited to address a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States of America in Washington. I am arranging to have a copy of my address on that occasion laid before the House as soon as possible together with a copy of the communiqué issued following my meeting with the President.
