Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I beg to differ. In reply to Question No. 657 tabled recently by Deputy Clare Daly, the Minister said:

The US is granted blanket permission for overflights by unarmed military aircraft. The US Embassy provides my Department with post hocmonthly statistical returns on the total number of overflights by such aircraft. Its return for February 2015 states that there were 48 such overflights by transport, passenger and refuelling aircraft.

How in God's name can the Minister say that there are no arms or munitions on these planes going through our airspace? What are US assurances worth given the terrorist activities of that country and the torture programme it ran, which we facilitated by allowing rendition flights through Shannon?

Deputy Clare Daly and I are due back in court in Ennis tomorrow because we tried to inspect planes, something the Government refuses to allow the Defence Forces or gardaí to do. We are trying to keep the peace, not break it. We oppose war. The Government is supporting war and the arms industry. A total of 33.5 million people have been displaced because of conflict. This is why we have the trouble in the Mediterranean.

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