asked the Taoiseach if he proposes to arrange a meeting with the UK Prime Minister which would be devoted exclusively to Anglo-Irish relations.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Meeting with UK Prime Minister.
12.
As I have said before, my six monthly meetings with the British Prime Minister en marge of European Council meetings are valuable and have proved adequate to exchange views on current issues. However, if a formal Summit meeting appears to be necessary or beneficial at any time it can, I am sure, be arranged. Plans for any such meeting would be announced, in accordance with established practice, simultaneously in Dublin and London close to the time of the meeting.
Would the Taoiseach agree that meetings en marge of the European Council, of necessity operate within the time constraints dictated by other agenda items to be considered by them? Would he agree that the importance of the Anglo-Irish relationship, and the many outstanding issues contained therein, require that in addition to there being regular meetings within an EC context there should also be an established practice of regular bilateral meetings outside the EC context to deal with these matters that do not naturally come within the EC ambit?
So far I have found — and I think the British Prime Minister would probably agree that she too has found — that these meetings at European Summits have been sufficient for our purposes.
Would the Taoiseach not agree that in regard to matters of this kind there are more urgent initiatives on our side, so to speak, and that therefore rather than satisfying himself with whatever satisfies the British Prime Minister in this regard, he should be more active in seeking bilateral meetings to deal with outstanding issues in the Irish interest?
As I have said, if bilateral meetings appear to be necessary or would appear to yield any beneficial result at any given stage, there is nothing to prevent them being held. On the other hand, there is no point in holding meetings just for the sake of holding meetings.
Would the Taoiseach agree that meetings on the margins of the European Council are meetings which almost could not be avoided and that if one did not have a meeting in that context, people would be wondering why he did not have one? Therefore, would the Taoiseach not agree that if there are outstanding matters in Anglo-Irish relations — on which his party constantly wish to harp — there should be bilateral meetings of an open-ended kind at which one is not constrained by time restrictions imposed by others, when such issues could be brought to a conclusion rather than being kept at a point on the centigrade scale somewhat below the boil in order to maintain a degree of tension which may be of partisan benefit to the Taoiseach?
There are all sorts of avenues available and there is a constant flow of communication at different levels between the two Administrations. I am not aware of any issues which cannot be dealt with within the existing procedures.
Would the Taoiseach not agree — as Presidents Bush and Gorbachev have found it is useful to have personal relations in matters of this kind — that many of the matters about which the Taoiseach engages in press release politics might more easily be dealt with if there was a regularly established pattern of bilateral meetings outside the margins of the European Council?
I can do no more than say that if it appears at any time that a meeting would be helpful or beneficial it can always be held.
We must now proceed to another question.