I thank the Taoiseach for his reply; he might have referred also to the President's official visit to Hungary in the past few weeks. There is tremendous goodwill towards Ireland in Eastern Europe. As a member of the Council of Europe I visited a number of those countries and an official visit by the Taoiseach to some of them would be very beneficial. Our fellow members of the European Union, particularly the Germans, the French and the British, avail of every opportunity to promote trade for the future. We need representation at the highest level, for example, we should expand our diplomatic corps.
I accept the Minister has a busy schedule at present, particularly in regard to the Northern Ireland talks, but I would like to make an observation in that regard. A surplus of arms is readily available in Eastern European countries at very little cost to paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, and that poses a tremendous danger to future peace.