When the Parliament goes into recess it will not reassemble until mid-autumn. It is appropriate, therefore, to ask the Government to answer questions on some major unresolved issues. One of the international issues to which much time was devoted in the Dáil and the international arena was the invasion of Iraq by imperial powers. Almost four months after the invasion and the dispersal of the Iraqi army, and in spite of the many regime leaders and scientists available to the occupying powers, not a shred of evidence has been found of the weaponry that was allegedly regarded as an immediate and mortal threat to western countries and which was believed to be capable of being mobilised in 45 minutes. Does the Taoiseach accept, on reflection, that the claims put abroad by the Bush and Blair regimes about these weapons were fabrications, that the invasion was predicated on a cynical and calculated lie and that the agenda was, after all, the control of oil reserves and the domination of the Middle East? Does he accept in particular that he was implicated in this dishonesty and that he, Deputy Harney and the Minister for Foreign Affairs owe an explanation to the Dáil, before it rises, and to the people for having repeated in the House time and again, as good coin and as fact, claims that are now clearly hollow and unsubstantiated? Does he believe that he should answer to the people why he assisted 40,000 armed US soldiers to invade Iraq on foot of what was clearly a lie?

I ask the Deputy to withdraw the word "lie".

The lie was perpetrated by forces outside the Dáil by the American administration.

The word "lie" is not acceptable in this Chamber.

It is acceptable. It is accepted on the record of the House. That is something the Ceann Comhairle has made up. The Deputy should stick to his guns.

The chair has ruled. I ask Deputy Higgins to withdraw the remark.

The standing order refers to allegations that a Member of this Parliament is lying. I am referring to agencies outside the Dáil.

It is unparliamentary.

It is not unparliamentary. A lie is a lie.

The Deputy cannot challenge the ruling of the Chair in this matter.

It is a fact. I ask the Taoiseach not to insult the intelligence of our people by referring to the thousands of innocent Iraqis who were slaughtered by the regime of Saddam Hussein while the Fianna Fáil party and the Government of which they were members did business with that regime. Dictatorship is a reason for a people's insurrection, a people's revolution, but under international law is not a basis for imperialist invasion. I ask the Taoiseach to direct his answer to the point that this Dáil was misled by the Government.

The Deputy will recall that both during the periods when Ireland was a member of the UN Security Council and when it was not, we continued to give total support to the efforts of the Council to bring a resolution to this major international dilemma that faced us from September 2002 right through to the Spring.

I am grateful to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Cowen, and to all those who worked hard to try to solve the problems. I found myself in a unique position in which I was able to relay the sentiments of the Security Council directly to President Bush, and to the British Prime Minister, Mr. Blair, in Hillsborough. I was glad to be able to do that. We stuck firmly with the UN position, and I am proud and glad we did so. On what was said about weapons of mass destruction, I had no information then that was not in the public domain, and everybody else in this House had the same information. I continually stated that I would not prevent the American administration from using Shannon for fly-over purposes. That was totally compatible with our position and I still believe that.

Nelson Mandela did not agree. He disagreed.

I am glad that after all these months a corrupt and vicious regime that killed thousands of Kurds with chemical weapons, and killed thousands of its prisoners, the full numbers of which have yet to be made public, is no longer in existence.

That was when you were selling beef to the Iraqis.

The Taoiseach repeated the claims of the US administration as good coin. The Taoiseach and the Government stated that this justified the actions that were taking place. The Taoiseach assisted them, and he now refuses to answer to the Irish people regarding the true situation.

I call on the Taoiseach again to explain why he misled Parliament and misled the people. There are Parliamentary inquiries into this issue in Britain and in the United States. I ask the Taoiseach to agree that the Dáil Committee on Foreign Affairs should thoroughly investigate this issue, the use of Shannon by the US military and the claims made by the Taoiseach and the Government. Would the Taoiseach be prepared to go before the committee to offer an explanation? Will he see that the advice of the Attorney General regarding the legality of the Iraqi war will be published in full and put before the Dáil and the Committee on Foreign Affairs? Does the Taoiseach agree that we have an on going disaster for the Iraqi people, the oldest civilisation on earth, now with a pulverised water and electricity system, the occupation forces facing a protracted and intensified insurgency and increased instability in the middle east and it was disastrous from start to finish?

A number of Irish citizens who felt so strongly about the slaughter in Iraq and the fact that the Irish Government was partly responsible took direct action against US planes. I ask the Taoiseach to request, on reflection, that the charges against them be thrown out, so that we can have a debate on the real issues and allow the Taoiseach himself to answer to Parliament.

I am glad to see that there is now UN involvement in Iraq. Clearly, a difficult position still has to be resolved there. I hope the presence of UN personnel there will be of assistance not only in a humanitarian way but will help resolve the ongoing difficulties. I still hold firmly to the view that the Irish Government took the correct action. We did not participate in the war. We allowed Shannon to be used, and that was not participation. That was the advice and I stick by that advice.

Even though it may take time for them to enjoy a more peaceful life, my main hope is that the people of Iraq following the removal of the dictatorship within which they had to live for the past 20 years will now be able to move on to have a more peaceful life.