Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

This is a hugely important aspect of the Bill. Like Deputy Wallace, I previously had the privilege of being a witness on behalf of Margaretta D'Arcy and Niall Farrell in their court cases when they were brought before the courts for allegedly interfering with the proper use of Shannon Airport. This goes to the heart of what we are discussing here. It would be completely wrong to ignore the giant elephant in the room, that is, the fact that Shannon Airport operates, in essence, as an ancillary or key part of the US war machine and without that business and that volume of traffic it would be a very different place. Are some of the measures being introduced in this part of the Bill being done to curtail the protesters who have inevitably gathered there as a result of it being an appendage of the US military and are we enshrining sufficiently the State's necessity to fulfil our international obligations under human rights law to protect our neutrality and ensure that we as a country are not engaged in activities which undermine citizens in other parts of the globe? That is the purpose of the amendments we have put forward.

Deputy Wallace has obviously forgotten that since the last occasion Margaretta D'Arcy has had a birthday and an 80 year old woman was transited to Limerick Prison earlier today for a two-week custodial sentence because she would not sign a bond and give an undertaking that she would not interfere or go on to the runway at Shannon Airport again and as a result of that she has begun today again serving a sentence in Limerick Prison. I salute her and stand in her shadow because she is absolutely magnificent.

About four weeks ago she and her colleagues in Shannonwatch gave a presentation to the petitions committee on how during the past decade and more they have consistently protested at that facility because of the ongoing use of Shannon to facilitate the US war machine. During that presentation, Margaretta D'Arcy highlighted the fact that the runway will be given over to allow a short sponsored run on it for a suicide charity and that she felt it was an appalling affront to the victims of suicide that the airport would be given over for such a measure when in the normal course of events the runway was being used to facilitate the slaughter of innocents. She said she would prefer to go on to that runway and blow herself up than be part of a state that would condone or turn a blind eye to our participation in what is going on.

It is in that same vein that we put forward these amendments because Shannon Airport is not a proper airport. I made the point on Second Stage that during the course of the trial of Margaretta D'Arcy and Niall Farrell two weeks ago Tom Clonan, the defence correspondent with The Irish Times, made the point that he had been engaged in discussions with the leadership of Hezbollah.

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It pointed out that it was disappointed with the State for facilitating this not at Shannon Airport but at the airport in County Clare. The journalist made the point, probably not inaccurately, that many people in Ireland did not know that Shannon Airport was located in County Clare. Clearly, the leadership of Hezbollah knows exactly where it is located. It was disappointed that a neutral country would facilitate the American war machine in the manner in which Ireland was doing. What does this do? It exposes Irish peacekeeping troops in Syria and other areas of the Middle East to unwanted attention and Ireland as a potential target, of which people in Ireland do not take sufficient account. Also critical is the role we are playing in the slaughter of hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan. I put it to the Minister that, without access to Shannon Airport, much of this activity could not continue. We need to take another look at this issue. There is a precedent in this regard. For example, in Horgan v.An Taoiseach it was deemed that the use of Shannon Airport was in breach of Ireland's neutrality. However, the view of the Judiciary at the time was that while it was not permissible for Ireland to allow troops engaged in belligerent activity and so on to move across it, it was beyond its remit to make a point on this and, that it was, in fact, a matter for the Legislature.

At every turn, every relevant Minister from whom we have tried to get answers on this issue has failed to respond. As legislators, we have not been able to address this issue, which is hugely frustrating. Earlier this month I tabled a question about the countries of origin of the aircraft that landed at Shannon Airport. When I had tabled the same question previously to the Minister for Defence, his response was that he did not have the information and that I should seek it from the Minister for Foreign Affairs. When I did so, the reply included a list of 35 countries which had had aircraft land at Shannon Airport in the previous 12 months. It was a lengthy list and contained the names of countries of which I had never even heard. However, what was omitted was the number of occasions on which aircraft from each of these countries had landed at Shannon Airport. I tabled another question last week about the number of times aircraft from these countries had landed at the airport, the reply to which was a little peculiar in that the list supplied on the day, 8 July, contained 24 fewer countries than the list provided with the reply on 1 July. However, the information provided on the countries that had sought permission to land at Shannon Airport during the previous 12 months was illuminating. Eleven countries had sought permission to land as follows: Bahrain, one; Belgium, two; Canada, five; Croatia, three; Egypt four, which is a little worrying as I do not why Egyptian aircraft would have had to land four times at the airport. One wonders if it is a case of my friend's friend can land here and so on? The list continues as follows: France, seven; Germany, four; Italy, eight; Malaysia, one; Mexico, one; and the USA, 630.

In response to our consistent questions on why hugely expensive wide-bodied US aircraft carrying military personnel were toing and froing twice a day across our airspace and had landed here 630 times in the previous 12 months the Government's response was that they were not carrying arms or involved in any military activity.

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