Order of Business - 6th October 2005

Order of Business – 6th October 2005

Mr. Norris: I ask the Leader if we could have
a debate on Iraq. We have a tradition of looking
at the situation in that country and current developments
there are very worrying. Last week,
American forces decided to enter the city of Haditha
in military form and attacked two cars containing
families fleeing. Ten people were killed,
including three children. Very little is done about
keeping this under review. The British army also
got itself into a very difficult situation in Basra
with two undercover SAS agents who were disguised
as Arab mercenaries and carried guns and
ammunition. I asked what the Colombia Three
were doing in Colombia and I ask the same question
on the same principle about the British army
in this case. What were these agents doing? This
question was neglected by the British media.
We should examine the question of asylum seekers.
A report in Metro magazine told the story
of a young Nigerian man who came to this country
five years ago. He applied for asylum and was
turned down. He then applied on humanitarian
grounds and was again turned down. He was
served a deportation order and committed
suicide, leaving a partner and a small child, whose
fate is also uncertain. We are told that these
people are not serious and that their stories are
cock-and-bull. The situation was serious enough
for the man in question to prefer to take his own
life rather than be returned to Nigeria.
I support Senator Morrissey’s call for a debate
on the transport system in Dublin. It would be an
opportunity for us to vigorously reintroduce, as
this House did very effectively with support from
all quarters, the notion of the only sensible solution
— a metro.