Because of the misleading information given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in reply to Questions Nos. 24 to 27 on the Order Paper for Tuesday, 23rd October, 1973, I asked permission to raise the subject matter of these questions. I thank the Chair for accommodating me and I would remind the House that a couple of the questions referred to were in my name. The questions concerned the operation of British Army helicopters on active service in our land. The Minister, with your permission, Sir, decided to take all four questions together. I would refer the House in particular to Question No. 25 and to show clearly that the Minister set out deliberately to mislead the House in replying to me. The question, as reported at column 312 of Volume 268 of the Official Report for 23rd October, was to ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs "the date on which he received the first request from the British authorities to permit their helicopters to carry out surveillance across the Border". There was no doubt as to what was intended by that question. We are all anxious that no troops other than our own would carry out surveillance duties on this side of the Border. This is work they are well equipped to undertake. In his reply the Minister said, and I quote from the Official Report referred to already:
Permission has been granted on three occasions for overflights by helicopters, two involving landings. The reasons for granting permission were to save lives....
Further on, the Minister stated and I quote:
The first occasion was on 27th January, 1973, when I had no authority to give permission in the matter. The second was on 4th May, 1973, and the third occasion was on 28th August, 1973.
In a reply to a supplementary the Minister stated:
It has been the practice to give permission where lives are at stake. The previous Government did so on 27th January, 1973, and we have done so on two other occasions. I propose to continue that practice where there is a question of human life being at stake.
The Minister set out deliberately to mislead the House by saying that the Fianna Fáil Government gave permission on the 27th January to the British authorities to send in helicopters to this part of the country for the purpose of carrying out surveillance.