asked the Taoiseach if he has established a schedule of visits to heads of government to mobilise support for his proposals for the unification of Ireland and, if so, the names of the leaders and the governments involved, and the proposed dates of such visits.

3.

asked the Taoiseach whether he has arranged any further bilateral meetings with heads of government of member states of the European Communities.

With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 2 and 3 together.

I would refer the Deputy to the final paragraph of my reply in the House to Questions Nos. 1 to 3 on 20 February last. I shall be meeting the heads of state or of government of the member countries of the European Community, in Luxembourg at the end of the month. I shall as a general principle seek bilateral meetings with heads of governments at any time it appears advantageous to do so.

Is it not so that this does not represent a significant departure from the practice which was adopted by Deputy Lynch when he was Taoiseach?

We cannot discuss the merits or the demerits of these matters on this question.

Did the Taoiseach not assure the House that there would be a new sense of urgency in regard to the establishment of contacts with European heads of government on this matter, and does he not agree that in fact he is not doing anything more than what was done by his predecessor?

I do not agree.

Further arising from the reply——

We cannot discuss all the pros and cons.

Is it not a fact that the statement to which I have referred about establishing contact with European heads of government to mobilise support is in the same tradition as the old ineffectual travelling circus first practised by de Valera in the thirties, the forties and in the fifties, and that the work which should have been done was not done?

Whatever about that, the Deputy is pursuing his traditional helpful attitude in these matters.

Window dressing as always, and procrastination.

We will see.

In view of the fact that the Taoiseach has not made a request or arrangements for any bilateral meetings with any other heads of state of the Nine, his approach appears to be a very casual one to what he described at the Ard-Fheis as the first political priority of the Government.

This is not in order.

I want to assure the Deputy that there is nothing casual in my approach to this matter. I have indicated that it is my major political priority and I am dealing with it as such in every way and in all its aspects.

Apart from the Fianna Fáil 1950 vintage rhetorical approach which the Taoiseach applied at the Ard-Fheis, can he tell us the concrete steps he has taken so far to practise what he has described as the first political priority of his Government?

These are separate questions.

There is nothing separate about them. Would the Taoiseach answer the questions?

The question asked whether meetings had been arranged. The Deputy can see clearly that if the Chair were to permit these questions——

The Chair's ruling on questions are most peculiar. The Taoiseach has indicated here today that he was prepared to answer certain questions, and he indicated to the Chair his willingness, but not to answer others. His main preoccupation is having his photograph taken instead of giving us some indication of what his policies are. Will the Taoiseach answer?

I will ask one final question. Does the Taoiseach not agree that the republican rhetoric in which he engaged at the Ard-Fheis was fairly and cogently described the other night by Deputy Colley, his Cabinet colleague, as glib cliches about the North?

I do not agree. Deputy Colley did not on any occasion say anything of the sort.

From the replies he has given is it not a fair interpretation of the Taoiseach's statement that all that is happening is the procedure followed by the previous Government of taking the opportunity at meetings of heads of government or Foreign Ministers to discuss the question of the North, without giving great publicity to it, for the sake of domestic consumption?

The only thing I can say that is that it is not the attitude of this Government, nor was it of the Government over which Deputy Lynch presided, to make statements to the effect that they had no wish to pursue Irish unity in the way in which a certain member of the Government of which Deputy FitzGerald was a member stated.

What has the Taoiseach done to pursue the first political priority? What concrete action has been taken?

In talking about Northern Ireland or Irish unity, would the Taoiseach use a word other than "dream"?

The Opposition parties are performing their traditional role of being destructive and negative in this matter.