A call has been made for the Irish Government to press for a UN investigation into the misappropriation of billions of US dollars intended for the reconstruction of Iraq.
Fine Gael's foreign affairs spokesman, Bernard Allen, said it was the "largest financial fraud in the UN's history". He pointed out that "363 tonnes of $100 bills imported into Iraq since the lifting of sanctions on May 22nd, 2003" had been misappropriated and there was a "black hole of accountability in this matter with no monitoring of spending".
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said the Government "can exhort his colleague on the UN Security Council, which has the primary responsibility to ensure funds are not misappropriated".
The allegations related to US government and Iraqi funds controlled by the UN. Mr Ahern said that if true, "some of the more recent allegations are simply disgraceful".
He pointed out that "some individuals and companies, including well-established ones, have already paid substantial fines following proceedings in the US courts".
He said most allegations that had so far come to light related to the period of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in 2003 to 2004. The UN Security Council authorised payment of Iraqi funds, including monies from frozen accounts and oil revenues, into the development fund for Iraq, which was administered by the CPA.
Attention was drawn to the lack of control but the authority was dissolved and administration of the fund transferred to the new Iraqi government.
Michael D Higgins, Labour's foreign affairs spokesman, said the funds had gone missing at the level of the banking system. In the oil-for-food programme, "it was not the persons who were distributing the food in Iraq who were involved in fraud but those contracted to supply the food".
"Again international trading companies defrauded the most vulnerable of the vulnerable."
