DAIL REPORT: The Taoiseach insisted that Ireland was not a member of the "coalition of the willing" supporting the war against Iraq, but added that he presumed we were on a list of 15 countries allowing overflight facilities.
As Mr Ahern came under repeated pressure on the issue, he said: "We are not members of the coalition." The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, noted that President Bush had said that 30 countries were supporting the coalition of the willing and 15 countries were also supportive and providing overflight facilities and so forth but did not want to go public.
"Will the Taoiseach clarify if Ireland is included?"
When Mr Ahern did not respond initially, he was again challenged by Mr Rabbitte to "expressly say if Ireland is on the list of 15 which the Americans think are supporting them. That is a perfectly clear question and I would appreciate an answer."
Amid noisy and heated exchanges, Mr Ahern replied: "In relation to the list, I do not know who is on the list..."
Mr Rabbitte: "Are we on it?" Mr Ahern: "On Saturday, I heard an American official state that people who allowed overflights would be included in the list, so I presume we would be."
Mr Rabbitte: "Are we on the list of 15?" Mr Ahern: "I presume then that we would be." Mr Rabbitte: "We are?" Mr Ahern: "I have answered it. I presume we would be."
Mr Rabbitte: "I thought we were not participating." Mr Ahern: "We are not participating in the war, but they include on the list people who are allowing overflight facilities." Mr Rabbitte: "So we are members of the coalition of the willing?"
Mr Ahern: "We are not members of the coalition." Mr Rabbitte: "This is very important because the Irish people did not know that we were part of the coalition of the willing." Amid further exchanges, Mr Ahern said: "We are not part of the coalition of the willing."
When the Green Party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, observed that the Taoiseach was the only one saying that, Mr Ahern replied: "No, I am not. Our position is accepted in international and domestic law, as well as by the United Nations and the European Union. In fact, very few people have any difficulty in understanding our position, other than Deputy Sargent."
Mr Ahern added: "Our position is that we will not participate in this war - we are not supportive of it - but we are totally supporting the humanitarian relief effort." Mr Ahern revealed he had no contact with the US administration, or the US embassy, since the war started.
Mr Rabbitte suggested that it was "an obscenity" that €75 billion was going to be used to destroy Iraq and €2.2 billion towards reconstruction and humanitarian aid.
Mr Sargent said that the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, had been clear in saying the Government was supporting the United States. Very many eminent people regarded Ireland as participating in the coalition of the willing.
Mr Ahern said that everybody in the House would have liked if the matter could be resolved without conflict. Unfortunately, 12 years on, this could not happen. "The only coalition we have to turn our efforts to is the UN coalition of the humanitarian aid and do everything we can through our agencies to do everything we can to resolving that."
Asked by Mr Sargent if the Government would be pro-active in the humanitarian crisis, and push for a recall of the UN general assembly, Mr Ahern said anything the Government could do to help humanitarian activities would be done.
Earlier, the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, said his party had accepted the House's decision last week relating to the issues which confronted the Dáil then. He offered the Taoiseach his party's support in taking a vigorous approach in leading Irish and EU-sponsored humanitarian aid programmes.
"This country has a huge reputation in this area for generations.
The Taoiseach will have our support in taking a pro-active and vigorous approach to ensuring that our aid targets into Iraq and is directed where it will give the most benefit to those who need it in this unfolding catastrophe."
