Vol. 405 No. 7
1 Mr. Bell asked the Taoiseach the number of official trips he made outside the State in 1990; the dates such took place; the countries visited and the nature of such visits; the number and grade of officials that accompanied him on each visit; and the cost to the Exchequer.
Most of these trips occurred in the first half of the year during our Presidency of the European Community. Given that this required an exceptionally heavy schedule of meetings with the Heads of State or Government of the other 11 member states of the Community, in their own countries, on at least two occasions, as well as meetings with the President of the European Commission, and with the President of the United States, as well as other meetings, I consider that extracting the very detailed information requested would serve no useful purpose, would mean deferring more pressing and urgent work and cannot be justified.
