Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I dtosach báire, cuirim céad fáilte roimh na finnéithe. Ceapaim gur é seo ceann de na hachainíocha is tábhachtaí atá feicthe againn go dtí seo. I welcome the witnesses. I commend them on the fantastic work they have done over the years, week in, week out and month in, month out at Shannon Airport. Trying to raise this issue and bring it to national understanding is a very important petition and one we need to take very seriously. I take on board the recommendations put before the committee and we have a number of options at which we need to look.

Dr. Horgan mentioned the fact we send our peacekeepers abroad, are very proud of the work they do abroad and are a peacekeeping nation but that we have questions to answer about the way we deal with people on our own territory. What we have seen at Shannon Airport is an Irish solution to an Irish problem in that successive Governments have done deals, which are not obvious and possibly are not on paper, about how Shannon Airport can be used and they have looked the other way on the rendition flights and the other atrocities happening around the world which have been facilitated by the use of Shannon Airport.

Ms D'Arcy raised the fact a civilian airport is being used for both civilian and military aeroplanes and the potential danger that brings is a huge issue. The witnesses have given us a lot of food for thought in the recommendations and the committee will obviously deliberate on them afterwards but it strikes me there is a number of possible routes we could take. We could ask the Garda Commissioner to come before the committee and possibly answer a number of the questions the witnesses put to us around any understandings the Garda has on the way the policing of Shannon Airport can be done.

The witnesses might tell us a little bit more about GSOC. They mentioned there was an issue around GSOC not dealing with complaints. GSOC has been a regular visitor here and it would be interesting for us to invite it to address some of those issues.

Other NGOs, such as Amnesty International, have also gathered information and it might be useful for us to hear from them at some stage about the evidence they have gathered over the years to build up the body of information this committee has in any deliberations.

From my understanding, the understanding we have with the US authorities on this is a matter for the Minister for Justice and Equality and possibly for the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. It might be interesting to discuss that with them.

This is definitely an issue which has been bubbling under the surface for many years due to the fact that the witnesses have focused so much attention on it but it has never been addressed in a forthright manner by a committee such as this and I welcome the chance this committee will have to bring in witnesses - I welcome the evidence the witnesses have given us today - to ask and tease out these very important questions, so that we can all be comfortable that Irish neutrality is front and centre and that nothing is happening on our watch that can bring harm to or maim anybody anywhere else in the world.