John Minihan (Progressive Democrats)

I join with previous speakers in congratulating the sub-committee on its report on the Barron inquiry. It proved that committees of the Houses of the Oireachtas could work effectively and produce a detailed report in a short timeframe.

I wish to briefly refer to the situation in Iraq and the horrific images we saw on television last evening. We have called for an ongoing debate on this situation. I ask the Leader to facilitate such a debate in the near future. When we are selective in the House about reporting on certain events in Iraq, it would be remiss of us not to highlight the barbaric images we saw last evening. We saw four civilians whose bodies were shot, burned, mutilated and hung from a bridge minus their arms and legs. The head of one body had been removed. That is not the behaviour of any civilised people. Even in war there is respect for the dead. It does not do any good to the human race when we see people behaving in such a manner. It would be remiss of the House not to refer to those events.