Extract from the minutes of a meeting of the Cabinet
'Refugees from Hungary: Admission'
(G.C. 7/161) (Item 6) (S11007C)

Following further consideration of the arrangements for the admission of refugees from Hungary, it was decided

1. that refugees comprising children and family groups should be accepted up to the number of 500 persons, in the first instance;
2. that a further number of refugees, within a limit to be determined by the Government, should be accepted, if necessary, at a later s
3. that able-bodied adult persons, other than any such persons included in family groups, should not be accepted as refugees, except in so far as such persons may be included in groups already accepted on behalf of this country;
4. that Mr. Hugh James McCann, Assistant Secretary of the Department of External Affairs, and Major-General Joseph A. Sweeney,¹ General Secretary of the Irish Red Cross Society, should be requested to proceed at once to Austria to supervise, in conjunction with Mr. Tadhg O’Sullivan, Secretary of the Legation at Berne, the selection of refugees for acceptance by this country and the arrangements for their transportation;
5. that the 85 persons, in family groups, referred to in a message received on the 23rd November, 1956, by the Department of External Affairs from Mr. O’Sullivan should be accepted as refugees and that Mr. O’Sullivan should be instructed to enter into no further commitments regarding the selection of refugees pending the arrival in Austria of Mr. McCann and Major-General Sweeney; and
6. that any necessary consent by this country to the proposed utilization of surplus funds at the disposal of the Council of Europe for purposes connected with the relief of Hungarian refugees should be given.