Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State for her positive response. Certainly, trade relations are improving rapidly and we must be pleased with a 16% increase in the current year. However, I have a concern. I regret that the Minister of State, Deputy Lucinda Creighton, is not present as I raised this matter previously when she was present. She is currently hosting on her personal website critical comments about Turkey and its application for accession to the EU. One of her statements is that the Irish people are horrified by the prospect of Turkey's accession. I do not believe that statement represents the true position of either the Irish Government or the Irish people. While we are all conscious of the need to manage carefully the accession of a country with 79 million people, it is not helpful to the endeavour in which the Tánaiste and the Minister of State are involved to have one of their colleagues hosting this type of very critical comment on the World Wide Web. I ask them to engage with their colleague, who is a person I respect, and ask her to remove a statement that is offensive both to Turkish people living in this country and to people who wish to do business with this country.

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