John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

The judge in that case said that neutrality was not enshrined in the Irish Constitution and that was the difficulty. The Minister said we have to take people's word in this regard. We took people's word for this on previous occasions when we were told categorically, and I would like him to confirm this, that there were no weapons going through Shannon, but a number of observers there saw that the troops were carrying weapons with them and the Minister had to do a U-turn on that point. If the Minister had the bottle to arrange for the carrying out of searches on these planes, I am convinced he would find that people are being transported to Guantanamo Bay. Why will he not arrange for the carrying out of searches on these planes?

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