Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I take the Ceann Comhairle's point. I simply am summarising what was in the Moriarty report. It made serious findings about the circumstances in which Mr. O'Brien received the aforementioned licence and about the role a former Fine Gael Minister had in helping him to secure that licence. The report also noted that significant payments were made by Mr. O'Brien to Deputy Lowry. Given this finding, does the Taoiseach consider it to have been appropriate for him to share the platform forum? This is not simply an historical question and the Taoiseach should clarify his relationship and that of his party to Mr. O'Brien. I ask him to so do particularly as a live issue faces us yet again in respect of Mr. O'Brien's recent acquisition of Siteserv plc and its facilitation by the writing down by Anglo Irish Bank of €110 million worth of debt to that company. This deal deserves considerable scrutiny and in the context of the controversial plans to introduce water metering and water charges, I note Siteserv provides contracting services to Bord Gáis, including the installation of water meters.

Finally, on foreign policy matters, did the Taoiseach raise the question of the recent massacre of 16 Afghan civilians by United States troops in Afghanistan? Moreover, did the Taoiseach raise with President Obama the question as to the reason the western powers, led by the United States, continue to impose punitive sanctions on Iran, even though the International Atomic Energy Agency has made it absolutely clear it does not believe Iran is engaged in a nuclear weapons programme? Did the Taoiseach ask him about the contrast between the treatment of Iran, which no one believes to have a weapons programme but on which sanctions are imposed, and the failure to impose sanctions on Israel, which everyone knows has a nuclear weapons arsenal but which does not have sanctions imposed on it and which in fact receives $3 billion in military aid each year from the United States? Did the Taoiseach ask the President about those double standards, given the very worrying sabre-rattling going on about possible further sanctions or even military action against Iran, something that would be disastrous for the entire region and possibly for the world?.

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