Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I take a somewhat different perspective. We are looking at the word "neutrality" in a simplistic fashion, considering world politics and world order. It is like we are saying, "but for this, we are neutral". We are quick to comment on what is going on all over the world. We may not send out armies, but if we were a military power, we might do so. Think of Libya and many other countries involved in what I see as a civil strife. We took a particular view on these and to what was going on in Libya, where there has been a change of regime. However, I do not know how much better matters are there.

Looking closer to home, there is a very close relationship between the US military and our Defence Forces. There is considerable co-operation between them, with training classes and exchanges where best practice and techniques are exchanged. Some of our Defence Forces study at the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and some US army officers attend the military college at the Curragh. There is also a US Defense Attaché, Lieutenant Colonel Sean Cosden, based in Dublin. Therefore, we already have close ties with the US forces. However, what we choose to do is to be involved in peacekeeping, while the Americans choose otherwise. Therefore, the situation is nuanced. It is not a question of saying we are not neutral because we work with the Americans.

The Minister said there are certain protocols in regard to inspections and that only where there is a suspicion that people are operating outside the permissions granted would there be an inspection. I believe that is fair. If people are entitled to carry certain hand-guns or other weapons, that is part of the permission granted. Much of the consternation regarding Shannon stems from anti-American, anti-capitalist and anti-everything the US represents sentiment. The idea has been expressed that Shannon Airport would be a prime target here, but perhaps it might be Google or somewhere else. We do not need to focus on big names or large pieces of infrastructure. One only needs to look to France, where a bakery was the target or to what happened at the Charlie Hebdo office.

We are living in a world where we must face the reality that it does not matter whether one professes to be neutral. Think of what happened in the shopping mall in Westlands, Nairobi, where rebels connected with al-Shabaab, which is connected to al-Qaeda, shot people they believed were Christians. Many white westerners fit the description of Christians, but rebels do not care whether or not they are churchgoers or believe in God. If they say they are not Muslim, they are shot. That is the reality of what happened in Nairobi and of the world we face.

I do not agree with the notion that the Americans are somehow to blame for attacks on the west, on Europe or on Ireland. That notion ignores the evidence that in many countries where there is civil war and trouble among the people, the regimes in power, whether legitimate or unofficial kill their own people. They are not just coming to the west and killing people for the sake of getting headlines, they are killing their own people. Over 100,000 Christians were killed last year and I found the report on that very disturbing and wrote to the Minister about it. Not just in the west, but in countries where Christians have lived traditionally, Christians are being killed just because they are Christian and much of this is happening in Muslim countries.

We are living in a world where in the comfort of our democracy we forget what it is like not to have rights and freedom. Think of the sort of regimes there are, such as that in Palestine and of the sort of regime that purportedly represents Muslims who are being oppressed by the Israelis.

One would not write home about many of them and recommend them as a regime for anyone to live under.