The Government easily won the Dáil debate by 77 votes to 60 on a motion that will continue to keep Shannon Airport and Irish airspace open to US military forces following a six-hour debate.
However, an attempt by the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, to defeat the Government was hindered by the decision of a number of senior figures, including the former leader, Mr Michael Noonan, not to vote against the Government's proposal.
Mr Noonan was joined in his stand by a former Fine Gael minister of State, Mr Jim O'Keeffe, and a newly-elected TD, Mr Pat Breen, along with the Limerick East TD, Ms Jan O'Sullivan (Lab).
The Fine Gael vote was reduced also by the absence abroad of a number of other TDs, including Dublin South's Ms Olivia Mitchell, Limerick West's Mr Dan Neville, Wicklow's Mr Billy Timmins and Waterford's Mr John Deasy.
An Independent Clare TD, Mr James Breen, said he could not oppose the Government's motion because of the economic importance of Shannon to the entire Mid-Western region.
In their speeches, leading Government figures repeatedly emphasised that Ireland's national interest was best served by allowing the Americans to continue to use refuelling facilities at Shannon.
However, they insisted that the motion did not impinge on Ireland's traditional policy of neutrality. "Hard choices must be made," the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, told TDs.
In addition, the Government must "define neutrality in a very complex set of circumstances; the value of international friendships and the expectations that come with those friendships", he said.
Mark Hennessy
Legal advice is that landings are constitutional
The Government had been advised that allowing the US to use landing and overflight facilities in Shannon was constitutional, the Taoiseach told the Dáil.
Opening the debate, Mr Ahern said that a summary of the Attorney General's advice to the Government was: "The granting to the US and its allies of overflight permissions, and the provision of landing facilities at Shannon, do not constitute participation in a war within the meaning of Article 28 (3) of the Constitution."
Mr Ahern said there was a clear distinction between the legality of Ireland granting those permissions and providing those facilities on the one hand, and the legality in international law of the proposed armed conflict in Iraq on the other.
"They raise separate and distinct legal issues. There is a division of legal opinion on, and doubts as to, the legality of the proposed armed conflict in Iraq. However, the legal position of the US and UK on such conflict cannot be dismissed."
He added that the absence of a further UN resolution on authorisation of military action did not of itself determine that the US and UK legal position was not sustainable.
"The fact that other states are granting overflight permissions, and/or providing landing facilities, while doubt exists as to UN authorisation, supports the view that there is no generally recognised principle of international law that would require Ireland to now withdraw those permissions and facilities."
Mr Ahern said that the provision of facilities did not make Ireland a member of a military coalition. "Nor does anybody regard us as such. We remain militarily neutral. The decision we have taken on this issue is our own."
He said no other country was known to be contemplating the withdrawal of existing facilities from the US. "This includes Germany and France, who have been the strongest opponents of US intentions on the Security Council. It also includes a number of Arab countries which have taken a strong position against war."
Mr Ahern said the United States and Britain were Ireland's partners in the Northern peace process, working with us to bring peace to our island.
"They are our biggest trading partners. They are the biggest foreign investors in the Irish economy. They are host to the biggest Irish communities overseas. They share many of our political and civic values. They are particularly worthy of our understanding where such understanding is appropriate."
The Government was convinced, he said, that the withdrawal of the facilities in Shannon could not but be seen, by any objective observer, as a radical and far-reaching change in our foreign policy and in the national interpretation of what was and what was not participation in a war.
"Any such change at this time could be seen by the United States and its allies as the adoption of a hostile position in relation to their country and their interests. Above all, any such change would created a precedent which would run counter to our long-term national interests."
The Security Council, he added, of which Ireland was a member, had agreed unanimously to adopt Resolution 1441, which had found Iraq in material breach of successive UN resolutions and gave its regime a final opportunity to meet its disarmament obligations.
Michael O'Regan
Government accused of collaboration
Fine Gael has effectively accused the Government of "collaboration" in the invasion of Iraq by allowing the use of Shannon for US military use while at the same time insisting it is not participating in the war.
The party's leader, Mr Enda Kenny, said that the Government "cannot uphold the primacy and legitimacy of the United Nations and agree to provide facilities in a war it has not mandated".
The UN "stands emasculated by the military action" of the US and Britain, said the Mayo TD, who also stated that Ireland's relationship with the US has "never been a relationship based on economic subservience or international patronage".
He insisted that "we either believe in the legitimacy and primacy of the UN, the international institution that has kept an often-fragile peace in this volatile and shrinking world of ours, or we do not".
Speaking during the six-hour debate on the war, Mr Kenny said: "We either consolidate our hard-won, political position as a strong neutral and non-aligned country or we join the supporting cast of the coalition of the willing. In short we either use or lose our small but vital voice in international affairs."
Accusing the Government of "collaboration", the Fine Gael leader said that the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, had repeatedly said Ireland was not participating in the war. "In World War II, France summed up that position as collaboration," he said as the Minister repeatedly shook his head at the allegation.
Collaboration in a war unsupported by the UN runs counter to the beliefs and values of the majority of people in this country, said Mr Kenny.
Pre-emptive action undermined the primacy and the legitimacy of the UN, and Ireland's "enlightened self-interest is best expressed by refusal to involve itself through the use of Irish facilities in such pre-emptive invasion".
Shannon Airport's future "will not be built on a war economy" and the last time a war contributed to its economy was 12 years ago, Mr Kenny said. Shannon would be "a hell of a sight better off" if the Government implemented its spatial strategy and regional development plans and put a decent package in place for Shannon, which had been let down over the years by the government.
"How can anyone say that an aeroplane-load of military equipment flying through Shannon Airport to a war situation in Iraq, without a UN mandate, does not contribute to, if not represent, participation in that activity? To do so would be to betray our commitment to the UN. It would betray Ireland's support for an effective international organisation which can ensure justice, order and international life."
On the question of economic interests, he said that to suggest that Ireland's self-interest "lies in acquiescing in anything that any other nation wants lest that nation subsequently reduce its economic commitments to this country is the expression of a debased motion of nationhood.
"We are not the 52nd state of the US. We are a free nation and as a free nation with high educational standards, a strong work ethic, and a favourable investment climate, we have attracted the best US corporations to set up here and will continue to do so without tainting our foreign policy and our international stance by a cap-tipping fearfulness that expression of difference might spell an end to such investment."
Marie O'Halloran
Claim on withdrawal of investment 'spurious'
It was "spurious" to suggest that US multinational investment in Ireland would flee if the Government asserted a neutral position in the face of an unsanctioned war, the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said.
"Of course US multinational investment in Ireland is hugely important. But so, also, have been the vast transfers of cash - real cash freely given - that have flowed to Ireland from the EU and the net contributing states over a long number of years under the Common Agricultural Policy, and, more significantly by far, the Cohesion and structural funds, the Social Fund and so on."
Mr Rabbitte said there was a hardly a modern bus or train, a railway station, tunnel or motorway that was not assisted by Europe on a vast financial scale.
"Hospitals, local amenities, libraries, water and sewerage services, initiatives in education, all have been facilitated by EU investment, by enormous transfers of resources from the likes of Germany and the other net contributors to the EU budget."
There was not a single significant public project or policy initiative that had happened in Ireland in the past 10 years which had not publicly carried a message proclaiming it to be part-funded by Europe and that had not carried the EU flag of the circle of start on the blue background.
"So let us not make this decision under the illusion that our self-interest, if not our principles, oblige us to turn our backs on Europe. In any event, it is spurious to suggest that US multinational investment in Ireland would flee if our Government had the courage to assert our traditional neutrality in the face of an unsanctioned war."
Mr Rabbitte said the Government's decisions were not run-of-the-mill. "They are not simple, pragmatic decisions with precedent and with little long-term effect. The Government has changed the Irish foreign policy stance in the broad sense. We are no longer a neutral country."
The Green Party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, said his party had no doubt that the attacks by the US-led forces on Iraq were illegal. That view, he added, was supported widely in Ireland, the United States and the United Nations.
The Taoiseach, he added, had implied that saying No to the US was an act of hostility. "He is defying the United Nations. I believe that this finally exposes the Taoiseach as a fraud, as he has repeatedly stated in the House that he stands by the United Nations."
He said Mr Ahern should not only respect the law of Ireland and the UN but also write urgently to the White House and ask President Bush to refrain from using landmines, cluster bombs, depleted uranium and nuclear bombs.
"Civilians will be more affected by these weapons than combatants. They will affect not only Iraqis but US citizens," Mr Sargent said. His party was demanding that the Government made a stand for international law. "I call on the Taoiseach to withdraw Shannon and overflight facilities immediately from the US military before any more Iraqi bloodstains on the Constitution or the Irish people."
Michael O'Regan
'Tough decisions to interact responsibly'
The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, strongly defended Ireland's links with the United States and sharply attacked the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny.
The Government, she said, was "not another pundit, another opinion-writer, another bar-stool expert", adding that it had to take tough decisions, to interact responsibly with other states, "most of all our friends and partners".
Ms Harney said it was with "profound sadness and great regret" that she had read Mr Kenny's comments in The Irish Times. "Deputy Kenny, apparently, wants to close Shannon to our close friend, the United States, so as not to antagonise the government of North Korea."
She asked if Mr Kenny was seriously suggesting "that we should base our foreign policy on the appeasement of an evil and corrupt Stalinist dictatorship, a communist monarchy which is widely recognised as a danger to world peace."
Ms Harney said Ireland had no responsibility for any other country but its own. "Our history, our relationships and our interests with the US and Britain are ours uniquely. Our ties with them run deep: historically, culturally, socially and economically.
"These are our closest friends who have helped us work for peace over terrorism in our own country. We accept their honesty. We trust them as friends.
"We appreciate their help in so many ways. Who can forget the special treatment arranged for us in Donnelly and Morrison visas, when we had failed our own people ? Who can forget the palpable closeness we felt after September 11th ?
"America has remained engaged in our peace process through both administrations, and for that we are very grateful. We want and need the continual engagement of the US and British governments on our vital national interest.
"But we will surely put at risk the spirit and strength and that engagement if we question their motives, their legality and their honesty at a time when they are asking their own citizens to put their lives at risk in war."
Michael O'Regan
Government response 'beneath contempt'
The Taoiseach's statement that withdrawing Irish facilities from the US would be seen as a hostile act was "a cringing example of moral cowardice", the Independent TD, Mr Tony Gregory, claimed in the Dail.
The Dublin Central TD opposed the Government's stance because Ireland "should be seen to act as an independent neutral country and should only facilitate actions sanctioned by the United Nations".
The invasion of Iraq was "a naked grab to secure the Iraqi oilfields for US capitalism and to secure imperialist control over the Middle East", the Socialist TD, Mr Joe Higgins, claimed.
The leaders "launching this war are the same ones who armed, supported and comforted Saddam Hussein and his dictatorship as did Fianna Fáil ministers who eagerly did business with the beast in Baghdad months after the slaughter of the Kurds in Halabja".
Mr Caoimghin O Caolain (SF, Cavan-Monaghan) said the Government had put forward no argument of principle to justify the continued provision of Shannon for the US military machine now at war with Iraq. It was an "entirely disingenuous" argument to say that stopovers had always been facilitated.
The Taoiseach had also attempted to create a smokescreen by stating that France and Germany, which oppose the US-British axis of war, were facilitating overflights and landings. These countries were members of the NATO military alliance. This State was not.
Mr Finian McGrath (Ind, Dublin North Central) said that the US and Britain would spend up to €132 billion on the war against Iraq when just 10 per cent of that would eliminate famine in Africa.
A US-led ground war aimed at overthrowing Saddam Hussein "amounts to a dangerous overreaction", even if it were true that Iraq retained chemical or biological weapons and that these could pose a threat to the US, said Mr Paudge Connolly (Ind, Cavan-Monaghan).
Labour's foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Michael D. Higgins pointed out that a number of senior US and British figures had stated that resolution 1441 had "no trigger for military action".
The Government had refused to answer "my first fundamental question on where it stands with regard to the principle of pre-emption and unilateral action outside the UN charter".
Marie O'Halloran
'Unfriendly step'
The Government had weighed all the concerns and reached a clear decision, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, told the Dáil. "To withdraw facilities from the United States - and I emphasise that it would be withdrawing as distinct from not offering facilities - would, of course, be one way of registering our distress and disappointment at the failure which conflict represents," he said.
"For Ireland now - of all the countries of the world - to take what would be seen as a more negative and unfriendly step than any other European country would, in my view, be seen as outright opposition to the allied coalition rather than retaining a policy of non-participation in the military action."
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, said Ireland would respond as generously and effectively as possible to the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people as the situation unfolded. "We will fund those agencies and NGOs optimally placed to deliver the wide range of basic needs and services which will be essential to protect the most vulnerable," he said. Michael O'Regan
Shannon business
A Co Clare TD has rounded on the Government for "doing nothing" for Shannon Airport and failing to focus until now on its "real value" to Ireland. Mr Pat Breen (FG) said facilities at Shannon had been used by American military aircraft since the 1950s and would continue to be used, and "the business they bring to Shannon is welcome but it is intermittent and could not be described as core business".
He said it was "an open secret that the Minister for Transport and the Government have already decided to shaft Shannon when the Ireland-US bilateral agreement is negotiated later this year".
The Minister of State and Fianna Fáil TD for Clare, Ms Sile de Valera, said: "Shannon is not just some type of strategic base for American military, it is a commercial airport and a business. In the past it has taken business from the old Soviet Union and from former eastern bloc countries, as it has from the Americans. This is the nature of a commercial airport."
Ms Jan O'Sullivan (Lab, Limerick East) said Ireland's neutrality had been abandoned by the Government.
"That the economic argument is being used to justify the use of Shannon is a failure of Government aviation and regional policy which should be sustaining and developing Shannon as a civilian airport, dependent on business and tourism and not on military personnel," she said.
The Minister of State and Fianna Fáil TD for Limerick East, Mr Willie O'Dea, said: "The central question is whether the withdrawal of facilities that the US has enjoyed for half a century will achieve anything in practical terms. Will that save one life? The answer is obvious."
Marie O'Halloran
The full texts of the Government motion and Opposition amendments put before Dáil Éireann yesterday are available on The Irish Times website at:
www.ireland.com