Don Lydon (Fianna Fail)

I have never been to Iraq, but most of the Iraqis I have met were decent, intelligent people. We must ask ourselves why we should send aid to Iraq. It is a country with vast oil reserves – currently 100 billion barrels, according to the Minister of State. Senator Bradford said that Iraq was, until the time of Saddam Hussein, a country with an ordinary government at local and national level. It had universities, schools, museums and so on.

There are two reasons why we should sent aid to Iraq. In the first place, the country has been invaded by a coalition of the UK, US and Australia. I have said this before, and people do not like my saying it, but it was an illegal invasion.