Bernard Allen (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)

Will the Minister say what response he got given that Mr. Peter Kaiser, spokesman for the OPCW, which monitors the use of phosphorous as a weapon, said that if it was used as a way of flushing out people from entrenched positions, it would be a weapon of terror. The Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Venable, said "illumination rounds were used in Fallujah to penetrate and destroy insurgent strongholds and to drive enemy combatants out into the open, where they could be killed with high explosives". Therefore, given the opinions of Mr. Kaiser and the Pentagon spokesman, would the Minister now agree that this was being used as a chemical weapon? What steps does he propose to take with the US Administration in this regard?

See this speech in context