John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)

I have no truck with despots or dictators who would attempt to enslave their populations but as a neutral country we must be careful when we offer support to military intervention in another country. History should have taught us a lesson in Iraq. Military intervention there resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people at the hands of those who intervened and other forces in Iraq.

It is interesting to hear the Government talking about people crying out for help. Not long ago the Palestinian people were crying out for help when they were being murdered by Israeli forces, bombed and slaughtered. I did not hear our Government or other western governments calling for any sort of military intervention to save the Palestinian people. The chances are the opportunity will be taken by the Israelis again to attack Palestine and it will be interesting to hear what Ministers have to say when that happens.

Will we call for intervention in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain? We have not been clear on this. What are we saying, that we will pick and choose when to intervene? If people rise up in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain, will we support military intervention there? Previous speakers were right when they said we should not intervene at all. The consequences have never been good when we intervene, as we saw in Somalia and Iraq. There is no question in my mind that the intervention in Libya is merely an opportunity for the settling of old scores by the British, French and Americans. It is nothing more than that.

I wish the people of Libya well and I hope they eventually overthrow Colonel Gadaffi. As in the case of Iraq, I am of the view that the final outcome will show that the current intervention was not worthwhile. The Government should learn lessons from that, particularly in the context of providing support to the United States when it intervenes in other countries.

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