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The Taoiseach has said he will raise Donald Trump's travel ban when he visits the White House on St Patrick's Day.
Enda Kenny said he would not write to the president in advance, "because I intend to visit him in the Oval Office and say my piece publicly, both before and then. I think president Trump is well used to disagreements and, obviously, is going to have many more in the times ahead.''
The Taoiseach dismissed repeated calls in the Dáil to cancel his Washington trip as the “populist question’’. He insisted he would go to the White House and speak “directly’’ to the president.
Mr Kenny also praised former acting US attorney general, Sally Yates, who was sacked by the president for refusing to implement his travel policy.
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He said he thought Ms Yates was a woman of great courage. “I think she stood up for what she believed in here.”
Mr Kenny said he had previously said publicly that it was not correct policy to ban travel on the basis of country, nationality or creed.
He said the issue was not just about visits to the US president, adding there was a long-established tradition in the links between the two countries. "We were those emigrants who first saw Miss Liberty out of the Hudson fog and said we had realised our ambition to come to the United States. "
Condemned torture
As a member of the Government, Mr Kenny said he had condemned torture, waterboarding and breaches of human rights around the world.
The Taoiseach said he would not object to an all-party motion condemning Mr Trump's action, as suggested by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, if there was agreement on it.
Mr Martin, who had asked whether the Taoiseach intended to write to Mr Trump outlining the Government's opposition, said he had heard about "concern'' but not a "clear articulation of the fact that this is wrong''.
Mr Kenny said there was full support for retaining the US pre-clearance facility at Ireland’s airports at the Cabinet meeting earlier.
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said he was up for an all-party motion if there was agreement. It was disappointing, he said, that the Taoiseach had yet to raise the matter with the US administration.
Mr Kenny said no person was vulnerable to be deported from Ireland.
If somebody looking for refugee status was turned back at a pre-clearance facility in Shannon or Dublin, they would be dealt with under Irish law.
Take a stand
Labour leader Brendan Howlin said Ireland needed to take a stand and the Taoiseach should acknowledge it was not business as usual.
The House should forge a common view and make it clear the great majority of the Irish people found what Mr Trump had done, and proposed to do, anathema, he added.
AAA-PBP TD Ruth Coppinger suggested it would be "rank hypocrisy'' on Mr Kenny's part to go to the White House, adding that it would probably be his last "bowl of shamrock'' event as Taoiseach.
"I, frankly, don't believe you will look Donald Trump in the eye and convey the anger of Irish people and that of most decent people in the world,'' she added.