We did. I want to point out the inconsistency in the attitude even of the Leader of the Government who very firmly, three times yesterday, said "no" in the emphatic, monosyllabic style which is particularly a characteristic of his. Today that "no" of yesterday becomes a "yes".
There is then the issue as to which of these two Ministers is responsible for the negotiations and who is answerable to this House—no matter where the question comes from—for an explanation of the negotiations. That issue has not yet been resolved by any means. I ask the Minister present in the House, in the absence of the other Minister—who indeed has a rather central role somehow even during his illness, a rather shadowy background type of role to play in all of this—to clarify this matter. I shall now put to him some very precise questions. I shall illustrate these from some Order Papers of this House over the last five or six weeks. I think the present Minister was appointed Minister for Fisheries around 7th or 8th of last month. On the Order Paper at that time there was a question down to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Question No. 61 on the Order Paper for 10th February read:
To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the unilateral conservation measures he proposes to take to protect Ireland's fishing industry pending agreement on the European Community's internal fishery regions.
At that time obviously the Government had decided that that was the responsibility of Foreign Affairs. Now I want to clarify something that some of the media appear to have misunderstood. It is not Deputy Gallagher or I who decide to which Minister a question is directed. We simply ask the question and leave it, as we have had to do over the past five weeks. In the General Office we are told that they are not quite sure which it is but to leave it with them and whichever Minister is responsible will take it. Therefore, the decision as to which Minister will appear on the Order Paper answering which question is entirely a matter for the Government. Sometimes questions we have submitted to Foreign Affairs have turned up under Fisheries and sometimes vice versa. That is a fact.
It would appear, as of 10th February, 1977—judging from the Order Paper for that day—that it was determined by one or other of these Ministers, not by the General Office, because they have at all times said it was not their function, that Question No. 61 which I had put down on the unilateral conservation measures which Ireland would take pending agreement on the European Community's internal fishery regions was appropriate to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the record is there to show it.
On 15th February, 1977, note Question No. 68. Again I had put this question down to the Minister for Foreign Affairs but where did it turn up? The same question to which I have already referred as being down to the Minister for Foreign Affairs on Thursday, 10th February, 1977, which was not reached, appeared on the Order Paper of Tuesday, 15th February, 1977, this time down to the Minister for Fisheries. Obviously a decision had been taken that, as of that time henceforth, the Minister for Fisheries was the Minister who would be responsible for the unilateral measures we would take in our negotiations. Nothing could be clearer than that decision to transfer the question remaining on the Order Paper from one Minister to another. That is not the end of it.
On 16th February, 1977 Deputy Gallagher put down a question—again to whichever Minister was responsible, because we have no way of knowing— and this time it appears on the Order Paper to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, as Question No. 11, reading:
To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he has been advised by the EEC regarding the number of boats from non-member States being allowed to fish inside this country's 200-mile fishing limit.
Surely a matter of our fisheries negotiations, the internal regime, and it turns up to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Two days later that one turns up again, this time to the Minister for Fisheries.
I shall go briefly through these because they illustrate a very important point in regard to the confusion to which we refer in our amendment. On the 16th February, 1977 that same question remained on the Order Paper to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, this time as Question No. 70.
On the same day I addressed a question to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and it was put down to the Minister for Fisheries, asking him the unilateral conservation measures he proposed to take to protect Ireland's fishing industry pending agreement on the European Communities internal fishery regions. How are we supposed to know, how are the public supposed to know, how is anybody supposed to know who is responsible? Hence the questions I asked as to who was responsible for the negotiations on our fishing interests in the EEC.
On 2nd March, Deputy Gallagher and I asked the Minister for Fisheries, the reply, if any, the Government had given to the request of the Commission of the European Communities to postpone unilateral conservation measures until 15th March and if he would make a statement on the matter. The House will note that question was addressed to the Minister for Fisheries, not by us although in some instances we may have taken a chance to see what way it would come down——