asked the Taoiseach whether he is prepared to recommend to the Local Appointments Commission that it is undesirable that police inquiries be made in Great Britain and Ireland into the private lives of medical men who have been accepted by the Local Appointments Commission to fill positions in the public service in Ireland, as it causes unnecessary embarrassment and inconvenience.

No police inquiries are made into the private lives of candidates for appointments filled through the Local Appointments Commissioners. It is, however, necessary for the commissioners to ascertain, before recommending a person to a local authority for appointment, whether he has come under the notice of the police. The form requesting this information states specifically: "It is not desired that inquiries should be made as a result of this communication. It will be sufficient to state whether anything is on record or is known to the police."

If any such inquiries have been made by police authorities abroad, this will have been done despite the explicit request of the commissioners.

It will, of course, be unnecessary for me to add that any information thus obtained is treated as absolutely confidential.

Am I to understand that this form is sent to the applicant and not to the police authorities?

No, to the police authorities; but it contains the passage that I have cited. The general purport is to request if there is any police record, if I may put it that way, but the police are requested or directed not to make any inquiries other than what they know.

Is it not clear to the Taoiseach that in actual fact the result of that is that police inquiries are likely to be made?

It is not at all clear; quite the contrary is clear. There may be exceptions, but the general rule is that no such inquiries have in fact been made.