Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I will take the Deputies' questions relating to Nos. 6 and 12 together.

When I go to the United States in March each year there is a more complete agenda within which I deal with a number of issues, but I do not deal with the United States on any of the other issues during the course of the year. That is why my officials would, correctly, have put these questions together. I totally defend them having regard to any insinuation that they did anything wrong. If I had been there on a separate mission, that would be a different matter. However, they were correct in how they handled this. The answer to Questions. Nos. 6, 12 and 13 is that I had no contacts with the US administration since I last answered the question. There are no supplementaries because I did not have any discussions with them.

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