Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Has the interdepartmental group in question discussed the implications of the Government's ongoing accommodation of US military flights at Shannon Airport en route to its war in Iraq? Given that we are currently hosting an international conference that is addressing the whole issue of cluster munitions, whose intent I wish every success, what assurance can the Taoiseach give that the flights using Shannon Airport are not themselves transporting cluster munitions to its war arena in Iraq?

Does the Taoiseach agree that, as these questions are all in the context of post-11 September 2001, there are, indeed, security implications and that we would have justification in being concerned for the people who are employed at Shannon and those who live in close proximity to it by the ongoing presence, regular and recurrent, of US military aircraft and with all the questions that have arisen and have not been satisfactorily answered in relation to the potential use of that facility and those planes for the transportation of prisoners by means of rendition, a term which has entered into the vocabulary? Does the Taoiseach not accept that the assurances of what I regard as the discredited Bush regime in relation to the whole matter of the war in Iraq are not sufficient, are simply not good enough and do not quell the justifiable concerns, questions and fears of the Irish people? Does the Taoiseach not believe that it would be appropriate to assuage public fear and establish the truth of the matter that the Garda should be instructed to carry out routine and regular checks of these aircraft to establish whether they were transporting prisoners and whether unacceptable munitions such as cluster munitions were being accommodated on such flights?

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