Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that and, in fairness, Mr. Burgess clarified in the original correspondence in December that he did, so I accept that my query was not entirely justified.
In terms of my next question, Mr. Burgess rightly pointed out the reasons we have friendly relations with the United States. I would go further and say we have an umbilical relationship with the United States. Some 70 million citizens there claim Irish heritage. I must declare that I would regard myself as an Americanophile. I am fascinated by United States history and its people. It is a friendly state for all the reasons Mr. Burgess pointed out but the difficulty is that we declare ourselves to be a neutral state, and that puts us in a position to advocate for conflict resolution and human rights in terms of the UN Human Rights Council. The difficulty for us is that the petitioner has asserted that what is happening in Shannon over a period of time has undermined our neutrality. We need to establish if it is commensurate. We have more work to do as a committee, and there will be more hearings in the new year.
I appreciate the Secretary General is not here to account for Government policy and that he can only talk about the implementation of Government policy as it happens. We acknowledge the points he made about our close, symbiotic relationship with the United States but our dilemma is that we declare ourselves to be a neutral state and we have facilitated large amounts of weaponry to come through Shannon on the way to a theatre of war. In one instance that was not given carte blancheby a UN Security Council Resolution. Where does that leave us? Mr. Burgess may not want to comment any further than he has already. If he does not that is fine because, in fairness, he is not here to account for Government policy and at some point we may have to bring in the Minister who is accountable for Government policy. I will leave it at that.