asked the Taoiseach if he will state the procedure whereby staff or advisers of his Department, other Government Departments and State-sponsored bodies are requested or directed to speak at "Into Europe" conventions.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - “Into Europe” Conventions.
1.
There is no question of staff or advisers of Government Departments or State-sponsored bodies being requested or directed to speak at "Into Europe" conventions. The Government wish to see a full and comprehensive discussion of the EEC question and to have all of the facts put before the people. Since some of the points which arise in discussion are of a technical nature, persons, in the categories mentioned, who are qualified to deal with them have been facilitated to do so at such conventions.
Could the Taoiseach define what he means by such persons being facilitated to appear at Fianna Fáil "Into Europe" conventions? Presumably somebody asks them to address such conventions, that they do not go gratuitously down the country. I refer to such people as staff members of CTT and so on or of the Taoiseach's Department.
We cannot have a discussion on this. We cannot have a speech.
I asked the official to whom the Deputy referred—as everybody knows he is a financial and economic adviser in my Department, not a civil servant—if he wished to go to some of these conventions to answer technical points. He said he was quite willing.
So long as I know the procedure. I think the Taoiseach is not correct when he says they are just being facilitated.
They are being facilitated. Nobody is obliged in any way to go. I should like to add that the first man who was asked to go to one of these conventions went to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions at their request.
I have no objection once I know who is asking whom.