THE Taoiseach and the Fianna Fail leader agreed in principle to hold a national all-party commemoration to mark the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the State on December 6th.

Mr Bertie Ahern had suggested there should be an inclusive State commemoration. Mr Bruton said there were difficulties in deciding what date to use to commemorate the event. The treaty was signed on December 6th, 1921, and approved by the Dail on January 6th, 1922.

There were various hand overs during the year of different installations, and the Free State Constitution was approved on October 25th, 1922. On December 5th, the Irish Free State Constitution Act was approved by the British parliament, and on December 6th the Free State Constitution came into force.

Earlier, Mr Ahern asked Mr Bruton why he did not mark the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Free State with a State event. The Taoiseach said the Government had approved the issue of 12 stamps this year to mark the event, adding that there were differing views on when the State was established.

In office in 1994, Fianna Fail was involved in arranging, at public expense, a Government reception to mark the 75th anniversary of the meeting of the first Dail, the event generally regarded by the party as marking the establishment of the State.

"I did not consider it appropriate to hold, at public expense, a second function marking the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the State, but equally did not wish to let 1997 pass without marking in some appropriate way the remarkable achievements of the 1922 provisional government in laying the foundations on which subsequent governments were enabled to build. Hence, Fine Gael held a successful function on April 17th to mark the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the State," said Mr Bruton.

Mr Ahern suggested that it would be better for the House to commemorate such matters on an inclusive basis, adding that he had no difficulty in commending the contributions made by people like Michael Collins, W.T. Cosgrave, Kevin O'Higgins and Paddy McGilligan for their role. But he would have thought that the 75th anniversary should be commemorated in a way that showed those in the House were capable of putting divisions behind them.

"We should not be trying, for political purposes, to substitute Civil War history for Civil War politics."

Mr Bruton said it was not right to suggest it was inappropriate for political parties to commemorate important national events, given that Mr Ahern's party had last weekend held an exclusively Fianna Fail commemoration to which no other party had been invited.

He added that a former Fianna Fail Taoiseach, Mr Jack Lynch, had stated in 1971 that he did not accept 1922 as the appropriate date for the foundation of the State. Mr Lynch had believed that the appropriate date was the meeting of the first Dail.