The arrival in Northern Ireland last night of the US President, Mr. Bush, was widely broadcast on television and he is shown in today's newspapers embracing an innocent child. When the Tánaiste saw those images did she think, as many people did, of the hundreds of innocent Iraqi children whose bodies had been torn to shreds by Mr. Bush's cluster bombs? Did she think of 12 year old, Ali Ismail Abbas asleep—

It is not appropriate to display anything in the House when contributing to a debate.

—when a missile slaughtered most of his family, leaving him orphaned, horribly burned with both his arms blown off? As a sup porter of the invasion of Iraq, does the Tánaiste know how revolted many people in this State are by the nauseating hypocrisy of Messrs Bush and Blair cynically using the Irish peace process as an alibi to cover their bloody slaughter in Iraq? Does she understand how demeaned people in this State feel that the Taoiseach of their country allows himself to be humiliated with a 30 minute walk-on role, a bit player in the Bush-Blair charade, when they were finished with their main agenda, the carve-up of Iraqi resources?

Yesterday the United States Air Force dropped four 2,000 lb bombs on a residential district, El Mansour in Baghdad, in an apparent attempt to kill Saddam Hussein, and 14 civilians were killed. Does the Tánaiste justify this attack on a civilian area in Baghdad and does she justify the killing of journalists today who were deliberately shot by tank fire and, in the case of Al-jazeera, by a strike from an aeroplane.

I do not believe that any Deputy, Deputy Higgins or any other, has a monopoly on compassion. We are all concerned at what we see. Hopefully this sad war will come to an end soon and the awful atrocities we have seen on our televisions in the past 20 days can be brought to an end. However it is good that the Taoiseach has had an opportunity to meet President Bush and the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to discuss the post-conflict situation in Iraq, the need for the UN to have a lead role and the humanitarian issues that arise. That opportunity has not been afforded to many others and it is right that the Taoiseach should be there and should avail of the opportunity to discuss these matters face to face with President Bush on behalf of the Irish people.

Does the Tánaiste not recognise that the Taoiseach, Deputy Ahern, and the peace process are being cynically used? Is that not obvious to the world? If the Tánaiste woke up from a three week sleep and was told that one side of the conflict in Iraq killed fewer than 100 soldiers while the other side killed countless thousands of civilians and conscripts, who would she think possessed the weapons of mass destruction? Where are the weapons of mass destruction which allegedly prompted this invasion that she supports? If a dictatorship facing extinction does not use poisonous chemical warfare to save itself, is it credible that regime posed a mortal danger to the United States and Britain, which was the alleged cover for the criminal invasion of Iraq?

It appears increasingly likely that the smoking gun will have to be flown in from Texas where more of it exists than anywhere else in the world. How can the Tánaiste continue to justify this invasion? I want to finally ask a question which the Taoiseach did not answer last week. Is the Tánaiste revolted by the cynical battle behind the scenes among multinational oil corporations and western powers to get their hands on the Iraqi people's oil to boost their already swollen profits? Does that revolt her in view of what is going on currently in Iraq?

Nobody could be happy about what is happening in Iraq and we hope it all comes to an end very quickly. Given the progress that was made, I believe we can expect that. I do not accept what Deputy Higgins said. It is clear there are a considerable number of oil wells which have not been used. The fact that people have not used certain weaponry does not mean they do not have it. They might not be in a position to use it.

Ireland's concern is a humanitarian one and we will play whatever role is required of us in that regard. We have already made commitments in relation to resources. We will make further resources available when they are needed. It is a positive development that the Taoiseach was able to talk to the two people primarily responsible—

For slaughter.

—the President of the United States and the British Prime Minister, in relation to the Iraqi situation.