Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach and Chairperson of the Government's Great Famine Commemoration Committee, Dublin 2.
Sir, - I refer to Joanna Laird's letter (June 12th) in which she criticised the Irish Government for not responding to Prime Minister Blair's statement on the Great Famine.
This is not the case. In fact, I wholeheartedly welcomed the Prime Minister's remarks in a statement issued on my behalf to all the national media, including The Irish Times, on June 4th. - Yours, etc.,