Shannon use must be reconsidered

Despite his presence in the Dáil yesterday, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern left it to Foreign Minister Brian Cowen to leave the country generally in the dark about our policy insofar as the crisis surrounding Iraq is concerned.

Instead, the Government will wait until the emergency EU summit on Monday, by which time the weapons inspectors will have reported to the UN Security Council, before it adopts a position, certainly in relation to the US military use of Shannon.

The United States has virtually pledged to press ahead with plans for a war with Iraq, in spite of a split in NATO, a divided European Union, and a majority of public opinion against it at home and abroad.