Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to hog the available speaking time, as many other people are waiting to come in. I suggest the people who made the petition would say they have provided a great deal of evidence of people who were tracked on flights that went through Shannon Airport and ended up fighting on behalf of foreign armies in war situations. Many people, possibly outside this country, might see that as a form of aiding and abetting. The Minister has said that Ireland is not actively engaged as a State in any war, but it is possible that people outside this country - the Minister has previously referred to them as "belligerents" - would see our willingness to allow airplanes to refuel and land here as aiding and abetting attacks on their compatriots. That would be one of the things I would mention in that context.

We have been told that there are arms and explosives on some airplanes, albeit in the holds of civilian aircraft. The details of that are logged and set out on the manifests for the flights in question. It is not correct to say there are no arms or explosives on airplanes going through the airport. Certain people, particularly the petitioners, would feel that the pure volume of soldiers on the flights that have come through the airport would make our neutrality questionable. That is certainly the view of some people outside Ireland. What is the benefit to us of allowing these airplanes to land? If we want to copperfasten our reputation and make sure we are seen in the international arena as totally neutral, surely we could ask these airplanes not to land in Shannon Airport. We were told in Shannon Airport that this is not a money issue as the amount of money involved is not huge. One of the questions to be raised concerned whether the airport is making a fortune out of these airplanes landing there. Why not let them land in other airports, such as military airports? There are concerns about security issues, especially given that an 80 year old woman was able to breach the perimeter of the aircraft and get onto the runway. As we know, questions have been raised about security in Shannon Airport. If an outside grouping sought to threaten seriously the airport, or any of the people on the flights coming through the airport, it might well be able to do so. I do not imagine that any of those groupings would ever indicate in advance that they intended to act in such a manner. This issue needs to be considered.