Ahern to discuss Iraq war at Bush meeting

The Taoiseach is to raise the war in Iraq when he meets President Bush in the White House next month.

Mr Ahern said that "the normal St Patrick's Day arrangement will apply on March 17th" when he was asked if he would be meeting Mr Bush.

The Labour Party leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, asked if Mr Ahern intended raising with President Bush "the fact that he has now confessed publicly that he was wrong on the Iraqi war". He added that while the Taoiseach had changed his position since, he had said when supporting the war that the speech by the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, to the United Nations had provided the world with the clearest evidence to date that Iraq had secretly produced weapons of mass destruction.

"The report is strong and clear. Will the Taoiseach raise with President Bush the fact that the latter misled him as well as the rest of the world on this issue? Will the Taoiseach tell the president that we might be more sceptical in future about automatically accepting the information of American and British intelligence sources and facilitating the transport of military personnel through our airports?"

Mr Ahern replied: "I will raise these issues because I recall well what President Bush told me last year on March 15th during the St Patrick's Day visit. I remember in particular what I was told by Vice-President Cheney."

Mr Joe Higgins (Socialist Party, Dublin West) said that when justice ministers met recently, the centre of Dublin "was turned into a virtual police state at huge inconvenience to small enterprises, workers and the general populace."

He asked the Taoiseach to ensure that did not happen again and that further meetings were conducted where they did not disrupt for days on end the running of the entire city and the ordinary people who kept it going with their taxes.

Mr Ahern said it was for that reason the Government had moved most of the European Council meetings and conferences outside the city to 20 venues around the State.

"The security people must come to their own considerations.

"All that I can say regarding securing arrangements in Ireland is that they are very lax compared with what happens in other countries.

"We will certainly be endeavouring to ensure that we keep disruption to a minimum. We are very conscious of that. For that reason, Dublin will not be troubled too often during the presidency," said Mr Ahern.