Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The grouping contains 17 questions covering anything which may or may not have been raised during the Taoiseach's St. Patrick's day visit to the United States of America. This is a wide range of questions with no real link to each other, which is very unsatisfactory and stems from the fact the Taoiseach is very determined to reduce the amount of time he must spend answering questions in the House. We had questions on two days but this has been reduced to one and it needs to be revisited because as a consequence many of the questions have become way out of date since the time they were tabled.

The Taoiseach has regularly come to the House and stated he wants to see something done about the murder of Pat Finucane but I do not get any sense of resolve about it. There is a complete lack of resolve when it comes to dealing with key leaders. It is not enough to raise it in general ways. We must insist that any failure to deal with the issue is a blight on the British Government's commitment to justice. It may be argued that Sinn Féin has little credibility in demanding justice for past murders but the Irish Government does. It has signed a deal and it is part of an international agreement that there would be a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane. The British Government's failure to address this issue is a blight on its record, and on behalf of everybody the Irish Government must up a gear in respect of its approach to the issue in international fora and when it meets US leaders in particular. Photo opportunities and fine speeches are easy but substantive work must be done on this.

With regard to the New York visit, in his reply the Taoiseach mentioned he attended the second annual Ireland day at the New York Stock Exchange on 19 March 2012. There was much debate after this item on the itinerary about the presence of certain individuals on the platform. With regard to these individuals, and the Taoiseach knows about whom I speak, he was asked a number of questions afterwards and he dismissed suggestions he was aware of who was going to turn up on the day. He told The Irish Times on Monday, 2 April he had no idea who would be there and that he was not in a position as Taoiseach to vet the list of attendees at any particular function he attends. On 7 March the Taoiseach's Department received a background note outlining in three paragraphs the event itself, organised by the Irish American Business Association, the format of the conference and the list of speakers. It stated the complete guest list was not available but did list the key individuals who were going to attend. Therefore, the Taoiseach was very well aware of who would attend the conference. Does the Taoiseach wish to correct the record of the House or was it a case that he did not read the background note? Did he mislead people at the time with regard to the presence of people at the function in The Irish Times interview and comments made in the House? This is with regard to the Denis O'Brien issue. I would like to hear the Taoiseach's view on this. Did he read the background note? He must have known who was going to turn up-----

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