Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Let us move on.

Reference has been made to the vast sums of money the EU is supposed to have allocated. It has spent €285 million, but it allocated €700 million. Let us place this in context: to date, the war has cost over $60 billion. That is about 50% of our gross domestic product for a year. To compensate the Iraqi people for the consequences of that expenditure of $60 billion, we, the heroic Europeans, are going to spend approximately €500 million at current exchange rates. The irony of our paying anything to make up for the damage caused by two countries which fought an illegal and immoral war is beyond me. Because I, like many Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas, am a humanitarian, I will not object on account of the particular irony of the situation.