The abduction of Irish-born aid worker Margaret Hassan, combined with the recent attacks in the high security Green Zone, would have reprehensibly further delayed the possibility of United Nations personnel going back to Baghdad, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, told the House.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations had recently emphasised to him the need for the strongest security measures to guarantee the safety of UN personnel in that country.
Speaking on a motion condemning the abduction of Ms Hassan, the Minister said that her husband was hoping to speak to people in Iraq whom he believed would have significant influence in relation to her fate.
Dr Mary Henry said the fact that such a good woman had been taken captive showed the deplorable chaos that Iraq had descended into.
As a parliamentary body they should ask the forces occupying that country to redouble their efforts to restore law and order there. She had been told that civilians, particularly women, found that it was impossible to go anywhere in safety.
The Leader of the House, Mrs Mary O'Rourke, described the abduction of Ms Hassan as a heinous crime.
In this particular case it was dreadfully wrong that a woman who had worked for the Iraqi people and who had put her heart into their welfare, should be so abused in this way.
It was worrying that there had been no word back from those who were holding her as to why she had been taken.
Mr Paul Bradford (FG) said that kidnappings were always dreadful.
But he thought that this one was more shameful because of Ms Hassan's background in Iraq. Her being taken hostage was now an international story; and reports from Iraq had spoken of a protest being mounted at a hospital in Baghdad against her abduction.
These people in Iraq had been trying to send out the wrong message, which was a powerful one, that Ms Hassan should be released by her captors immediately.