For weeks the people in the Shannon region have been subjected to an experience approaching that of a police state in order to make possible President Bush's visit. Will the Tánaiste confirm that buildings in Shannon Industrial Estate are being commandeered to set up a makeshift prison for protestors — our very own mini gulag, complete with courtroom?

Our own Abu Ghraib.

Will she confirm that places are being cleared in Limerick Prison? How can she justify ordering this repression to welcome a man that the majority of the Irish people hold responsible for the criminal slaughter of thousands of innocents in Iraq and do not want here? This repression is orchestrated by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform who has us believe that he scaled the heights to save us from one-party totalitarian rule.

He did.

At least he climbed a few lampposts. Citizens in many communities can now not get hold of a garda when they need one. How can the Government justify taking thousands of gardaí from already overstretched duties to put a ring of steel around a man who the Government will not dare parade in public, even at a hurling match as the US ambassador suggested this morning? Of course, George Bush might declare the hurley a weapon of mass destruction and bring in the US air force. Does the Tánaiste intend meeting Mr. Bush personally to welcome him to Ireland?

We are discussing setting up a public inquiry into the savage bombings 30 years ago that murdered innocents in Monaghan and Dublin. There is a tribunal of inquiry into the killing by State forces of a single citizen. How can this be squared with rolling out the red carpet for a leader who launched a criminal and illegal invasion in which thousands of children, women and men died or were maimed? How can the Tánaiste square the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform's pillorying of a political party which he claims is backed up by baseball bat wielders with his spending of millions of euro in order to protect a man who has wreaked havoc on the innocent people of a nation?

We will welcome the President of the United States on behalf of the European Union. Summits between the EU and Russia, Japan, the Arab states and Latin America have already been held. The Taoiseach, on behalf of the EU, also attended the G8 summit. The next summit is the EU-US summit, generally held every second year but which was postponed last year. The person who will be welcomed is the President of the United States of America. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has informed me that a temporary Garda station has been established. The security responses will be proportionate to needs at the weekend. We want to ensure, not just the safety of the US President and his delegation, but also that of the people in the Shannon region and the travelling public.

Is the Tánaiste meeting him?

I am. If the Deputy wants me to pass on his regards, I will be delighted to do so.

The Tánaiste can pass on the message.

Over the last week Fianna Fáil backbenchers have accused the Tánaiste of leading the Taoiseach around with an ideological halter around his neck while making a prison camp of the Government. We hope President Bush does not think she is his Irish version of Private Lynndie England and pat her on the head.

The Tánaiste will not be welcoming George Bush on behalf of the Irish people, which she declined to say in her answer. Will she affirm the right of the people, young and old, to turn out in mass peaceful protest without having their capital city turned into a provocative police fortress as happened on May Day when it proved unnecessary? Young people charged with the most trivial public order offences on May Day are forced to sign on at a Garda station three times per week up to September. These are young people who express political dissent. The Government meanwhile has not ordered a garda into a single investigation of massive tax fraud by wealthy bankers. Will the Tánaiste agree that the Government is replete with hypocrisy, which is very clear in the welcome being given to a man whom the Irish people do not want to see on this island?

On behalf of the European Union and Ireland we will be welcoming the President of the United States of America, a country that has been extraordinarily good to us politically in terms of the Northern Ireland peace process and economically in terms of inward investment. Just yesterday we announced a major expansion of an American company in Clonmel. We have very significant economic and political interests in good friendly relations with the United States. Clearly we do not agree with the US approach on many foreign policy issues and that will be made clear to the US President.

And we cover up the crimes.