Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 15 July 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions

Shannon Airport Landings: Discussion (Resumed)

4:15 pm

Photo of John HalliganJohn Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their comprehensive views and papers. I was looking at the definition of neutrality at one stage and I know that it depends on one's political view. In essence, however, it is not supporting or helping either side in a conflict or disagreement. It also means a state not offering a preferred view on that conflict. I would imagine that would be a concise and reasonable definition of neutrality. I recall speaking some months ago at a meeting of either this committee or the Joint Committee on European Affairs, and I aligned it with what is happening in Shannon. For instance, if two states are at war and one of their planes with armed troops lands at a third state to refuel before attacking the other state, the third state is in essence helping one side in that conflict. We appear to have helped America, which has been complicit in the violation of human rights and proven torture, with the hundreds of thousands of troops that have landed in Shannon and then flown on to Iraq and Afghanistan. To me, it is a decisive breach of neutrality. I would like to have the witnesses' views on that.

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