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

I thank the Minister. I have a couple of questions before I let in Deputy Mulherin. We have held a number of hearings at this stage. We visited Shannon Airport and met the management of the airport and the senior members of An Garda Síochána responsible for the security of the airport. They were helpful in clarifying matters. In terms of the civil and military aircraft, the point is that approximately 1.2 million US troops came through Shannon on mostly civil aircraft in recent years. Some were going to Iraq and some were on their way to Afghanistan, no doubt to theatres of war. In terms of the war in Iraq, that did not have UN sanction, which is something on which we would place heavy import in our deliberations. The Minister mentioned political neutrality. The difficulty with these 1.2 million troops, and some of them going to a theatre of war that was not facilitated or supported by the UN or a UN Security Council resolution, is that they all would have been carrying sidearms, perhaps not on their person but certainly on the plane, and all of them would have had at least a rifle. That is millions of weapons which came through the airport. Will the Minister say how he thinks that is commensurate with a declared position of military neutrality?