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

I could explain the threat. I realise the Department of Defence is only one of four Departments that deal with the issue. The Minister made the point earlier that our approach to the Mediterranean is a humanitarian one. We need to step back from that. I put it to the Minister that if it was, we would be taking a hell of a lot more refugees than we have agreed to take. We would not be just leaving them in Italy for the Italians to deal with them. In any case, if we were really concerned we would be standing back and looking at the circumstances that made those people refugees in the first place. One of the key reasons for that is the destabilisation of the region and the interference by the US military, an interference which we have facilitated and continue to facilitate through the use of Shannon Airport. Unless we address those issues then we are complicit in the circumstances that are giving rise to all those people who are desperately drowning in the Mediterranean and all of the other circumstances of destabilisation in that region. Perhaps the Minister might take up the issue at Cabinet level because there is an incredible inconsistency in our alleged neutrality while we allow the continuation of the landing of flights on a twice-daily basis.

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