Independent organisations reckon that the number of civilians who have died in Iraq is between 600 and 700, following the dropping of 10,000 US and British missiles, which slaughtered and horribly mutilated many others. How can the Taoiseach justify this war, which he has done in response to the previous question? The horror for civilians is largely sanitised by the despicable and sordid coverage of the international media networks. Has the Taoiseach taken the time to view some of the Arab television stations' coverage of the war? Has he seen their pictures of distraught men and women and traumatised children wailing over the broken bodies of their relatives? Has he been briefed on the massacre yesterday in the town of Hilla of 33 innocent people by the United States bombing of a residential quarter, when cluster bombs were used? This is a picture in today's newspapers of a father in Hilla grieving over the broken bodies of his babies.

Deputy, it is not appropriate to display newspapers.

How can the Taoiseach call weapons, that do this to human beings, sophisticated? Will the Taoiseach revise the definition he gave yesterday of what is happening in Iraq as a tragedy and call it instead extreme criminality? Will he say the leaders of the United States and Britain who are responsible for this are acting criminally? Will he instruct the Minister for Foreign Affairs to call in the British Ambassador and the senior United States envoy to register the revulsion and condemnation of the vast majority of the Irish people of the barbarism for which they are responsible in Iraq?

Some 120,000 more troops are being sent from the United States to Iraq. Can the Government be persuaded not to be complicit in this barbarism by facilitating them at Shannon and sending them on their way to drop more bombs, to kill more civilians and to wreak more havoc?

Deputy Joe Higgins knows what I have said about the humanitarian issue. What is happening is shocking. I despise war of any kind as much as anybody else. I have seen much of the filmed reports, some by the Arabian media. I have also seen filmed reports of some of Saddam Hussein's operations, including the killing of women, which are horrific. In balance, the Deputy should remember some of the anniversaries of past events – for example, we saw the film of more than 5,500 people who were killed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and chemical warfare some years ago. Many children died at the hands of his regime. All war and suffering is wrong but let us not look at only one side of it. This regime has killed one million people in a decade.

It did not stop the Government trying to sell him beef.

Within the United Nations we can play as strong a role as we possibly can to assist all the organisations and individuals who are involved in the humanitarian effort. We will do that in every way we can. There is already co-operation with UNICEF and many other organisations and we can do more within the UN. A huge amount has been done by the United Nations to help the aid programme. The UN is not sitting on the sidelines. It is deeply involved and it is necessary for it to be so.

I had an opportunity last night to talk to a number of my European colleagues. Working collectively with the United Nations we can do much more and we will endeavour to do that.

As usual the Taoiseach deliberately avoided all the crucial questions. Is there any end to the hypocrisy of this Government? The Taoiseach correctly referred to the barbarity of Saddam Hussein, but why was the current Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan, doing deals with the beast of Baghdad on behalf of the Fianna Fáil Party seven months after the massacre of Halabja? How can the Taoiseach stand up here and lecture me with that stain on his party and on the Government of which he was a prominent member at that time?

Does Deputy Higgins object to food going to them?

No. 48a on today's Order Paper is in my name and that of seven Independent Deputies. Will the Taoiseach provide time for this proposed motion on Iraq or for a debate on Iraq this week? Does he agree that this is urgently required? Does he regret the Government's support for Resolution 1441 whose deliberate ambiguity was attempted to be used to give some kind of cover to the criminal invasion of Iraq by the United States and Britain? Is he revolted by the spectacle of massive US corporations organically linked to senior figures in the Bush Administration—

The Deputy's minute has concluded.

—that will be given billion dollar contracts to re-build Iraq. The people of Iraq will have their oil sold to pay for the bombs that obliterate them and their country. These corporations will then be given massive profits to re-build it. More oil will then be taken to create massive profits for these US-based corporations.

The Deputy's time has concluded.

As the leader of a country that suffered hundreds of years of imperialist plunder, how can the Taoiseach not take a stand against what these western powers are doing to the people of Iraq?

I ask the Deputy to resume his seat and allow the Taoiseach to reply.

The Deputy said I did not answer his earlier question. I said that the war under way is without doubt a terrible tragedy. We have seen the media reports—

I asked the Taoiseach about Shannon and—

Deputy Higgins is being disorderly.

—from Iraq that are distressing in the extreme. Ireland and the international community are working through the United Nations and we will continue to use our urgent search for solutions. I am not sorry that we put the effort into Resolution 1441. I gave the Deputy an opportunity but I did not lecture him in the way he lectured me. I gave him the opportunity to look at the intransigence of Saddam Hussein and see how he had acted for 12 years. Let us be frank, he had an opportunity. He made an agreement in 1991.

So the Taoiseach supports the war.

The Deputy should not try to twist it.

He broke it in 1998.

Deputy Higgins, the Taoiseach is entitled to the same courtesy as you were afforded asking your question.

Dictator regimes always do that.

I will be asking the Deputy to leave the House. The Deputy should resume his seat.

In 1998 he threw out the inspectors. He refused—

They were withdrawn.

He threw out the inspectors.

Tell the truth. They were withdrawn.

He threw out the inspectors and on every subsequent occasion—

They were withdrawn.

Deputy Michael D. Higgins is not a member of Deputy Joe Higgins's party. Allow the Taoiseach to reply.

—he rejected the efforts to try to deal with the situation peacefully and that is the truth.

The inspection process was shafted by the Taoiseach's friends who he supports by allowing them to come through Shannon.

Deputy Higgins should allow the Taoiseach to reply.

The entire world agreed on it as did the United Nations Security Council – 15 to zero. It is obvious that Deputy Higgins and others have problems with people agreeing to that, but they agreed on an international position.

The Taoiseach's minute is concluded.

Unfortunately, Saddam Hussein continued to decline it. That is the terrible tragedy but it is the reality and that is why we are in the current difficulties. As much as I abhor it that is the fact.

None of it is accurate. The Taoiseach is for the war.

No, I am not for the war. I am against all wars.

The Taoiseach is for the war.

Yes, the Taoiseach is for the war.

I do not take one-sided views on wars.

Neither do I.

Deputy Michael D. Higgins is totally out of order. We now move on to Taoiseach's questions.