I move:
That, to welcome the visit to Ireland of Ronald Reagan, the President of the United States of America, and to mark the event in a single manner, a joint sitting of both Houses of the Oireachtas be held on Monday, 4th June, 1984, in the Dáil Chamber and that the President of the United States of America be invited to address such joint sitting; that the proceedings at such joint sitting shall consist of a speech by the Ceann Comhairle welcoming the President, the address by the President and a speech of thanks by the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad for the address; and that the time for such joint sitting shall be 12 noon.
President Reagan is visiting Ireland in his capacity as Head of State and as Chief Executive of the United States of America. It is our intention that the President should be welcomed in Ireland and afforded the countries appropriate to his position. Successive Irish Taoisigh have been treated with great courtesy in the United States in the course of official visits to that country, several of which have been made within the past couple of years at the invitation of President Reagan himself. During two of these visits within the past eight years, two Taoisigh, Mr. Liam Cosgrave and myself, have been accorded the opportunity to address Joint Sessions of Congress.
President Reagan's visit is at the invitation initially of my predecessor in office and was confirmed and renewed by me earlier this year. He is visiting Ireland as part of a European tour which will also extend to France and to London, where he will attend the Western Economic Summit. The visit is valuable from an Irish point of view because of the opportunity it provides to consolidate the excellent relations between our two countries.
The President's visit will of course focus the attention of the people of the United States on the tourist attractions of this country at a time when we have been failing to secure an adequate share of expanding US tourist trade traffic to Europe.
US investment here already amounts to £4 billion involving 350 factories and 37,000 jobs. This visit, if its impact on the US opinion is positive, offers a prospect that these benefits might be enhanced at time when jobs and foreign investments were never more badly needed.
I know that account will be taken of these factors by all who are concerned for the employment prospects of the present and the next generation, and that it will influence the manner in which responsible people, who may wish to convey their disagreement with aspects of US policy, bring their feelings to the attention of the President.
The Government for their part will of course take advantage of this occasion to express to the President the concern felt by many Irish people about aspects of the US policy in Central America. We shall also be conveying our concern, already expressed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs at the opening of the Conference on Disarmament in Europe in Stockholm earlier this year, and known also to the Soviet Union, that the negotiations on intermediate and strategic nuclear forces should resume, and should do so with the genuine and manifest aim of succeeding, and thereby bringing about substantial reductions of nuclear weapons and conventional forces to the lowest possible level.
Those of our people concerned about these matters can, therefore, be assured that their views will be conveyed without the need for public demonstrations of a kind that might prove counter-productive. It may be noted in this connection that Speaker O'Neill, who opposes a number of policy stances adopted by the President, including the Central American policy, emphasised during his recent visit to Ireland that the President should be welcomed in a manner appropriate to his office.
I might add that now that the efforts of the New Ireland Forum have given a fresh impetus to the search for a solution to the Northern Ireland problem it is important to bear in mind the positive role that the United States can play in creating a climate favourable to political progress in relation to this matter.
Finally President Reagan, one of two recent US Presidents of Irish descent, is head of one of the most influential countries in the world, and we regard as an honour that he has accepted our invitation to visit this country.