The Government has been accused of compromising itself morally in allowing the US military use Shannon airport by the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin Most Rev John Neill, writes Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent.
The archbishop also said he found it "extraordinary" the Green Party "were able to swallow it in the end".
In an extensive interview in the current issue of Hot Press, the archbishop describes the HSE as "a monster that will inhibit any Minister from making any real progress" in reforming the health service and criticises the decision to locate a new national children's hospital "virtually in the inner city" of Dublin.
He said "a 'Love Ulster' campaign in Dublin is asking for trouble" and he was "very unconvinced that it should take place".
The archbishop said he was "confused, as are most people" about the Taoiseach's finances, but didn't see "a very lavish lifestyle" where the Taoiseach was concerned.
He felt "anybody in public life has to be very transparent in all their dealings - and has to give clear answers when they're challenged."
On Shannon, Archbishop Neill said: "I feel very strongly that economic links to America have made us very blind to the moral issues.
"Many people in Irish society were questioning, and for a while the Green Party were very much to the fore in questioning it, but I think as a nation there has not been sufficient questioning of these rendition flights and the link of Ireland with the war in Iraq, whether we like it or not."
He added: "I feel that the Irish Government have compromised themselves.
"People will say that politics always has an element of compromise, but I believe one of the chief moral issues of today is the issue of war."
As to the Greens going into coalition with Fianna Fáil, considering their stance on Shannon, he said: "I am not a member of any political party and I have never been a supporter of either of those two political parties, but at the same time stable government is something people are seeking.
He said the Church of Ireland had been "compromised very seriously in the past in Northern Ireland through its links, apparent rather than actual, with the Orange Order" and that this was "very unfortunate and very damaging to us [members] in the Republic." He had "very little sympathy" for the way Drumcree was not handled more firmly in the mid 1990s.
On pre-marital sex he felt "the ideal - and right place - is for sex within marriage but I certainly would not condemn anybody in a loving relationship".
Abortion was "totally justifiable" in cases of rape and incest and he believed civil partnership, but not marriage, should be allowed where homosexual couples were concerned.
On the issue currently dividing the worldwide Anglican Communion, the ordination of a gay bishop in the US, he said that if such an event took place in Ireland: "I think it would split the Church [of Ireland] from top to bottom."