Vol. 355 No. 8
asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the reason it was not possible to make telephone contact with the Irish Consulate in Cairo on 22 January 1985, when a person (details supplied) made repeated efforts to get assistance to contact her brother following her father's sudden death.
398.
asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the reason his Department did not report back on the success or otherwise of their efforts to make contact in Cairo on 22 January 1985, with the person (details supplied) whose father had died suddenly following requests to this Department by Deputy Gregory-Independent and by the person's sister.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 397 and 398 together.
We are not aware of any difficulties with the telephone of the Irish Embassy in Cairo on 22 January 1985. The Embassy was open and operating. On being contacted that day by the family involved my Department, having failed to get a telephone connection to Cairo immediately, sent an immediate telex message instead. The family was told at that time that this was being done. The Embassy was asked, in accordance with the family's instructions, that the son visiting Cairo be contacted and asked to telephone home for an urgent message. The Embassy was of course informed that the message related to the father's death.
The son was not a resident of Cairo but only there on a short visit. The family could give no address for him. However, the Embasy succeeded on the same day, 22 January, in making contact with some-body working at the location to be visited by the son. This contact had already received a similar message from another source. He told the Embassy on the following morning, 23 January, that the son had been given the message and was already on his way to Dublin.
Since the message was for the son to contact home himself, and since in any case we were aware within 24 hours of being contacted by the family that he was already on his way home, the Embassy did not consider any further action necessary.
