The Government has announced a huge St. Patrick's Day delegation to the United States in recent days. The Tánaiste has been outlining the importance of these trips to his Cabinet. They are very important and the Cabinet should undergo an intense level of diplomatic training.

In previous years, there were a significant number of mistakes. The former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, snubbed a high-level executive meeting with business people who have invested billions of euro in the Irish economy. I am not sure if that was before his inappropriate comments in relation to Monica Lewinsky for which he was forced to apologise. More recently, the Tánaiste called the US President a "gowl". Will the Taoiseach commit to ensuring the Cabinet undergoes training to ensure these mistakes are not made again this year?

The Deputy might need to do a bit of training himself.

It would be a very boring Cabinet. I do not mean that in any disrespect to diplomats. We are fortunate in Ireland that we have superb diplomats. We have tremendous diplomats who represent us very well, professionally, all over the world, including in the Middle East, the United States, Africa and Asia.

I mean politicians.

We are all elected so you get what you have. We are all elected by the people. We all have different talents, different nuances and different approaches - that is the beauty of political life itself.

What about the "gowl" comment?

Comments get made and comments get retracted. By the way, I am not sure the then Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, snubbed anybody. I do not know whether he was a Minister or the Taoiseach when the Deputy says he snubbed people.