Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In referring to Article 35 of the Chicago Convention, the Minister stated that no civil aircraft may carry munitions of war over a state without a state's permission. In terms of the granting of a permit, therefore, one could read that as meaning it is with the State's permission. Does that not contravene the idea of non-participation? Could people read it as meaning the state is participating and facilitating, therefore, does that not bring our neutrality into question in some people's eyes? Are we not playing with semantics and technicalities, as such? The petitioner's thoughts on this are that military flights have been seen coming in and flying on to the theatre of war in Afghanistan or Iraq, and people are being murdered as a result of them passing through Ireland. The sense of the people we have been listening to is that we are colluding in that by allowing that transition through Shannon.