asked the Taoiseach the measures he proposes to take to consolidate and build on the Anglo-Irish Agreement in the coming year; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

5.

asked the Taoiseach if he intends to renegotiate the terms of Article 1 of the Anglo-Irish Agreement and if he will make a statement on the matter.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 and 5 together. It is the practice of Irish Governments to honour and operate international agreements concluded by their predecessors. This Government will follow in that tradition and will fulfil and operate the Anglo-Irish Agreement. The House will notice that the Government have designated the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Brian Lenihan, as Permanent Irish Representative to the Intergovernmental Conference set up under the agreement. We will seek, through this mechanism, to improve the position of all the people living in Northern Ireland and especially the members of the nationalist community.

The Deputy will be aware that my party and I have indicated that we do not accept the constitutional implications of Article 1 but as an integral part of a binding international agreement that Article could be amended only by mutual agreement and there is no likelihood that such agreement would be forthcoming.

Does this mean that the Taoiseach is withdrawing his statement made at Bodenstown last October, that immediately on assuming power he would seek to renegotiate that aspect of the Anglo-Irish Agreement?

What I have said in my reply is the position, that the Article could only be amended by mutual agreement and there is no likelihood that such agreement would be forthcoming. That position has emerged since I spoke at Bodenstown.

On the question of how the Taoiseach hopes to build on the Anglo-Irish Agreement, does he agree with the policy pursued by the previous administration, and turned down by Mrs. Thatcher, to have three judges sitting in the non-jury courts in the North?

I would not like to enter into the merits or demerits of that proposal at present. With regard to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, what is proposed and what has been the position of this party from the beginning is that if progress can be achieved through the Inter-governmental Conference, that progress will be followed through.

Does the Taoiseach propose to leave the same officials serving the Anglo-Irish Agreement as have been there since its inception?

That is a matter which I hope the Deputy will forgive me if I do not go into at this stage because there are security considerations involved. Also, there is the question of the burden on particular individuals who carry particularly onerous responsibilities over a reasonably long period. I would ask the Deputy not to pursue that for the moment.