asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will make an up-to-date statement on the European Security Conference in Madrid.
Written Answers. - European Security Conference.
22.
The Madrid follow-up meeting of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe began on 11 November and is expected to continue until about March 1981.
The procedural issues on which the nine-week preparatory meeting had failed to agree and which threatened to disrupt the main meeting were finally resolved on 14 November. At present the meeting is examining implementation to date of the Helsinki Final Act and will continue to do so until the Christmas break on 19 December. After the New Year resumption on 27 January, new proposals for improved implementation of the Final Act will be examined and a concluding document will be drafted.
As regards the issues before the meeting, the Deputy will find in the Dáil library a copy of the opening statement which I made on 13 November. In that statement I described in some detail the Irish Government's attitude to and expectations of the Madrid meeting.
In the first weeks of the meeting the atmosphere has at times been strained but given current tensions in East-West relations this is hardly avoidable. While I recognise the difficulties confronting the Madrid meeting in present international circumstances, it remains my hope that some concrete and significant results will emerge from the meeting and the Irish delegation are certainly working towards such an outcome.