Mr David Norris (Ind) asked that the House be informed about the status of the impending visit to Zimbabwean president, Mr Robert Mugabe, whom he described as a highly unsavoury and undemocratic character.
Asking if the visit had any official status, Mr Norris said he understood Mr Mugabe was to address a meeting in University College Dublin within the next few days.
If the visit had any official standing it should be used to give this visitor some instruction in the nature of democracy, because he was a well known dictator who presided over a tyranny and had stirred up vicious hatred against sections of his own community.
Mr Maurice Manning said he understood Mr Mugabe was coming here at the invitation of The Irish Times as part of the Irish Times Harvard Symposium on the future of Africa, and that a major debate was to be held in UCD on Monday week (March 10th). He believed it was not an official visit in any way.