Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

However, I thank her for her response. I applaud her welcome of the appointment of Archbishop Brown and acknowledge the value of the appointment of someone of the calibre of Mr. David Cooney, albeit as non-resident ambassador.

That said, the Minister of State has not addressed the essence of my concern at the lack of cohesion in Government on this matter. The Taoiseach made it clear that this is something that should be reviewed. Implicit in what he said was that there would be an early and imminent review. That position was directly contradicted by the Tánaiste last weekend.

An allied issue is the possible visit of the Pope to Ireland to correspond with the Eucharistic Congress planned for later this year, 80 years from when it was last convened here. The congress will be of enormous significance to people of the Catholic faith. It will also be of major economic benefit. I cannot understand why the Taoiseach, or the Tánaiste, cannot issue an unambiguous invitation to the Pope to come to Ireland. We were delighted to welcome President Obama, Queen Elizabeth and the Dalai Lama, but the Taoiseach has side-stepped every question put to him as to whether he would extend a clear and unambiguous invitation to the Pope. He said the Pope would be welcome. We know he would, but why would the Taoiseach not invite him. Is he captured by the comments he made in the aftermath of the publication of the Cloyne report? Is he captured by those remarks, or why will he not issue a direct invitation?

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