asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of persons who are not civil servants employed by him since March, 1973; their names; their status; and their salaries.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Non-Civil Servant Employees.
14.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle I propose to circulate in the Official Report a statement giving the information sought. Following is the statement:
One such person who is not a civil servant has been employed in my Department since March, 1973. He is Mr. Cornelius C. Cremin, former Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations in New York, who retired on 7th February, 1974. Mr. Cremin has been re-employed on a fee basis to act as head of the Irish delegation to the Law of the Sea Conference. He is paid a fee of £18.00 per day for each day's attendance arising from his assignment as head of the Delegation to the Conference.
How many names are there?
One.
If there is only one name I feel the Parliamentary Secretry should give it to the House.
I will give the name but I should like to remind the House that when the Taoiseach was asked a similar question yesterday he adopted a similar format of reply. I have no objection to giving the name or showit to the Deputy but I propose to adopt this sytem of answering a question in a desire not to have the name of an individual unnecessarily mentioned in the House.
If the Parliamentary Secretary circulates the answer it is available to the Press in the normal way and they are perfectly free to publish it. I do not know whether the Parliamentary Secretary gains anything by trying to conceal it from Members of the House.
I do not wish to make an issue of it and there is nothing in the least embarrassing to the Minister or the Government in giving the name. I do not think anything will be gained by the Deputy by eliciting it. The person is Mr. Cornelius Cremin, former Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations in New York who retired on 7th February, 1974, and who has since been retained on a fee basis to act as head of the Irish Delegation to the Law of the Sea Conference.
A most admirable assignment.