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

Before I call on Senator O'Keeffe, I have one or two questions. It is estimated that 2.3 million US soldiers came through Shannon Airport, the overwhelming majority of them so doing with exemptions or licences from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. Throughout that period, they were travelling on civilian or chartered aircraft and all 2.3 million of them would have had sidearms and, one assumes, rifles, which the Minister has stated were unloaded. I refer to a scenario in another country in which persons on their way to a theatre of war stopped in someone's house. They were wearing full military clothes, clearly identified themselves as being involved in conflict and carried their weapons into the house. They were given dinner and sleeping quarters overnight but later on, when those in that household were being prosecuted by the relevant authorities, they argued that the weapons were unloaded. Although the members of that household did not check, they claimed they were assured by the visitors that the weapons were unloaded. Does the Minister think that would constitute a defence of the proposition that the household in question was neutral in that war?