If the Taoiseach is not changing his position, it appears that he agrees that the motion mislead the House because the situation has changed. The C130s that overfly this country are not carrying cotton wool. They are huge planes that are designed to carry large amounts of military equipment. If the Taoiseach thinks that they do not carry military equipment, he is misleading himself.

Will the Taoiseach agree to a debate on the unfolding situation in Iraq? In The Guardian today, Mr. James Woolsey, the former director of the CIA and the man proposed by the Pentagon to head up the Ministry of information in Iraq, clearly states that this is not a short war and that it will not be over soon. He states that it is more than a war against terrorism, that this is a war to extend democracy to those parts of the Arab and Muslim world that threaten the liberal civilisation that the US worked to build and defend. He states that that will probably take decades.

In light of the game plan that is unfolding, given that the toe is in the door in Iraq, is it not the case that the Government needs to seriously state and debate its position in this House? It is not a question of where we stand simply on the invasion of Iraq or on overflights, it is a matter of deciding how we go forward as a supposedly neutral country in the face of a plan that will take decades to implement.

If there were a grand plan for the USA to take over the Middle East – to follow the war in Iraq with invasions of Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia – we would need to consider these issues. I made that point yesterday. However, I do not think there is any such intention.

Then why is it written here?

The United States would like to have better relationships with some of these countries and has had difficulties with some of them—

It certainly has.

—but I do not think military action is being contemplated.