Mr. Speaker, as parliamentary secretary and not in another title I must say that the figures quoted are slightly exaggerated, by one-third.
Now let us come to the substance of the issue. The gentleman concerned had been posted to Rome on his first posting. He did not yet have diplomatic quarters. His assignment was to prepare the diplomatic conference.
The decision was made by the embassy which was in charge, not by the PMO or by the foreign ministry, to have him work in the hotel where the delegation and conference would be and to work on a 24 hour a day basis—