Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I note in media reports that the issue of rip-off Ireland was raised in the House yesterday when I did a back-of-an-envelope calculation regarding the price of petrol. Two years ago a barrel of oil cost €20 because of the valuation of the euro and the dollar; today on the world market it costs €22, even though there is a different valuation on the dollar. Two years ago the price of a litre of petrol was about 65 cent to 70 cent, yet in most places it is now closer to 90 cent, even though the price of oil in euros is only 10% dearer than two years ago.

Another example of rip-off Ireland is raised in a letter in the Irish Times today in which a man quotes Stena Sealink as stating that if one booked a ferry ticket from Ireland to Britain, the price was £84 sterling but €240. He asked the reason this was the case and was told it was because of market forces.

This country needs to take a serious look not at the wage increases of working people but at the practices and presumptions of the business community. The biggest issue is not that there are gradual price increases but the perception that there is a rip-off culture, to which people have become inured.

It is time the House had a debate on foreign affairs with particular emphasis on Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld is reported this morning as having said he thinks Iraq perhaps destroyed all of its weapons of mass destruction in the period of the invasion. He was asked the reason the Iraqis had not used their weapons and replied that because the war had lasted such a short time, they did not get around to using them. However, they did get around to destroying them.

This is extremely important. If there are no weapons of mass destruction, the war was fought on a lie told by the President of the United States—