I want to inform the House that, following discussions between the deputy leaders of the different parties, there is now agreement on the form that the National Commemoration Day Ceremonies should take this year. The decision is that the venue should be the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham and the ceremonies should take roughly the same form as last year. The parties are all agreed on that. Deputy O'Malley felt that the Garden of Remembrance was a suitable venue and he would have preferred that the ceremonies should have been held there again this year. However, because the other parties are all in general agreement he does not wish to make any objection. The ceremonies will go ahead in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham on 12 July and will follow generally the same pattern as last year.
Estimates, 1987. - National Commemoration Day Ceremonies: Statement.
A Leas-Cheann Comhairle——
It is not the practice in the case of an announcement to have any speaker other than the person who makes the announcement.
I want to make a very brief point about the position taken by Deputy O'Malley. I would have been in the same position had it not been for the fact that the matter was reported to me as having been agreed between the other three parties. In order to bring about unity I gave in on the point of the location.