andMr. Lenihan asked the Taoiseach if the views of the Government Press Secretary, as quoted in the Baltimore Sun newspaper on 3 November 1985, and reproduced in The Irish Press of Tuesday, 5 November, 1985, that the Irish and British Governments are hoping to buy the consent of Catholics to be governed in their talks, represent Government policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Anglo-Irish Talks.
2.
Any agreement between the two Governments resulting from the Anglo-Irish talks will have to take account of the immediate problems and the sense of alienation of the Nationalist minority in Northern Ireland, without detriment to the majority there, and to allow for peaceful development in the interest of the whole island. The remarks of the Government Press Secretary, to which the question refers, were, in their full context, intended to make this point.
Does the Taoiseach agree that the remarks attributed to the Government Press Secretary were made by him?
They have not appeared in their full context. I am not quarrelling with the statement that the words were used in a different and wider context.
Were the specific remarks that the Irish and British Governments are hoping to buy the consent of Catholics to be governed made by the Government Press Secretary to the Baltimore Sun?
They are not the words quoted in the Baltimore Sun.
I am quoting directly from the Baltimore Sun, and from The Irish Press of 5 November which requoted the remarks. Does the Taoiseach accept that these remarks were made by his Press Secretary?
The words quoted by Deputy Lenihan are not the words in the article in the Baltimore Sun which I have in front of me.
Tell us what the words were. Does the Taoiseach accept that the Government Press Secretary is a paid employee of the Government and did the Taoiseach conduct an investigation into what the man said on this occasion?
Yes.
What did he say?
I have already answered the question.
The question has not been answered.
I said that the words referred to in the last three lines of the question were used but used in a wider context. The article in the Baltimore Sun has not been correctly quoted by the Deputy.
(Interruptions.)
The words were used. Is the Taoiseach describing those words as proper quotations or misquotations or are the words in the same context as those used by him in Brussels last Friday evening?
If the Deputy wishes me to go into that matter, I shall be happy to reply. I told the meeting of Young Christian Democrats in Brussels of our hopes and aspirations that Ireland will in time be united in peace, aspirations that we will not abandon. I also told them that we believe that we have an obligation now to secure the application to the Northern Nationalists minority of two of the Young Christian Democrats' principles, first, that full participation in the life of one's society is the birthright of all and, second, that the struggle for peace cannot be detached from the struggle for justice. I said that the political identity of the Nationalist minority has not hitherto been accommodated in Northern Ireland and that, as proposed in the Forum report, we wanted to see structures created in Northern Ireland with which the minority could, for the first time, identify. Our Nationalist hopes and aspirations, which I reasserted and to which everyone in Ireland knows I am totally committed as part of my personal heritage and which I will never abandon, must take second place in the short term to securing these rights for the Nationalist minority in the North. If we persist in the policy of doing nothing about these rights until we secure Irish political unity, we would be betraying that minority and I will not be a party to such a betrayal.
Does the Taoiseach agree that in his subsequent statement he said that he was misquoted in the press?
I said, when I spoke to journalists in Brussels, that the headlines were misleading and that the initial statement in one newspaper, purporting to be a quotation from my speech, was incomplete and misleading but that the substantive reports as filed were correct. My objections lay with the headlines and with the first sentence in one particular news report, not with the contents of the reports themselves which were substantially correct.
Is the Taoiseach not aware that he and his Press Secretary regularly plead misquotation when they find themselves in a cul-de-sac which denies the basic aspirations of our people? In this case, the Government Press Secretary paid a wanton and gratuitous insult to the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland specifically stating that the Irish and British Governments are engaged in a process of buying their support. They are the precise words which the Taoiseach said were uttered and they cannot be taken out of context. Does the Taoiseach agree that that represents a fair summary of the position?
No.
Does the Taoiseach deny that this is happening and that that is what the Press Secretary said?
I have already answered the questions and I do not accept what Deputy Lenihan said.
The position is that the Taoiseach has agreed that these remarks were made but that they have been taken out of context or misquoted. He agrees that the Government Press Secretary has paid this gratuitous insult in order to alienate the Catholic minority and to deliberately——
The Deputy must ask a question.
The Taoiseach wants to foster abroad——
I cannot permit speeches.
Does the Taoiseach agree that that represents a gratuitous insult to the minority in Northern Ireland at this very sensitive time in its history?
Sometimes I think the Deputy is a gratuitous insult to the House.
I am calling Question No. 3.
Does the Taoiseach agree that the remarks I quoted as having been made by the Government Press Secretary——
I have called Question No. 3. Will the Deputy please obey the Chair? I will not permit speeches at Question Time.
Were the remarks, whatever their context, not made by him?
Will the Taoiseach please reply to Question No. 3?