Brendan Ryan (Labour)

We had a Government in the 1980s which was not afraid to tell the US what it thought of its foreign policy. It was a led by Garrett FitzGerald and Peter Barry was Minister for Foreign Affairs. They told Ronald Reagan in Dublin Castle that what he was doing in central America was wrong. We do not always have to toady up to the US when it engages in actions that are wrong. One does not get respect that way. One is taken for granted and that is what is happening to Ireland.

Much more needs to be said but I will conclude by referring to US chemical weapons. It has 15,637 tonnes of mustard gas, 7,464 tonnes of sarin nerve gas, 4,032 tonnes of VX nerve gas and 1,698 tonnes of another nerve gas. That is how much the US owns. When an international agency wanted to inspect its supplies, the US refused. When the agency persisted, the US subverted its chief executive and caused him to be sacked. Whatever the reasons for this war, and there are many, let us not pretend that morality is at the centre of it because morality it ain't.