Dr. John Lannon:

Here is the bizarre irony - the Monty Pythonesque scenario Ms D'Arcy referred to. We are being told the military planes are not involved in war or are not carrying munitions, but the civilian planes are carrying soldiers to war and are carrying munitions. We know from the Minister for transport that these so-called civilian planes are military planes to all intents and purposes, because they have been contracted by the US military. Omni Air International and others are making these flights on contract for the US military. They are going to US air bases. Therefore, essentially they are coming from the US to what is effectively a US air base in Ireland and then on to another air base, which is closer to what they refer to as a theatre of war, so that they can be acclimatised or whatever and go in from those air bases.

We also know there are soldiers in military attire on some of those military aircraft but they are supposedly not engaged in military exercises. This beggars belief, as Dr. Horgan said.

I will now return to the initial question on the quasi-legal justification given when all this started in 2002 and 2003. There was no mandate from the UN and any quasi-legal justification came retrospectively when an attempt was made to put in place some semblance of a UN mandate relating to Afghanistan. Since then successive Governments have hidden behind vague, woolly and imprecise terminology to create justifications. There is talk of humanitarian missions and the responsibility to protect. We have heard the notion of military neutrality spoken of for many years - it has no legal basis but allows us to adapt what we can do while still remaining neutral.

Another matter, namely, sovereign immunity, was introduced by the Minister for Justice and Equality last year in response to parliamentary questions and it is something that can be granted to some of these aircraft. No clear legal basis has been provided for any of these matters. There is no clarity as to whether there is compliance with the Hague Convention, the Geneva Convention, the United Nations Conventions Against Torture, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or the European Convention on Human Rights. I could give a long list of such conventions. I am speaking of very serious conventions and treaties that Ireland has signed, ratified and said it will uphold. They are part of Irish law but Ireland is ignoring them while hiding behind vague terms like sovereign immunity and military neutrality.