Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I did not hear Deputy Martin make the statement that the current refugee crisis has nothing to do with Western policy. That is an amazing statement. I do not believe for a second that the Minister of State, Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, would agree with that. I believe he would have a more open-minded approach than to come up with that notion.

The refugee crisis in Europe has been incredible. It is outrageous if we do not try to determine why it has happened. Of the 60 million people who have been displaced, 33 million have been displaced by war. Never in the history of mankind have so many munitions been manufactured. Never in the history of mankind have so many munitions been sold. Never in the history of mankind has so much ammunition been poured into the Middle East. In 2012, Europe alone sanctioned €9.5 billion worth of arms for the Middle East. This figure pales into insignificance by comparison with the value of the arms the Americans have sent to the region. It is totally disingenuous if we pretend this does not have an impact. When one drops bombs on people's houses, there is a fairly good chance they will move because they have no house left to live in. Obviously, the Western powers are not the only ones dropping bombs. Russia is just as culpable and Iran does not help the situation. Surely we should be able to adopt a neutral position and wash our hands of the whole lot of them and say that under no circumstances should we have anything to do with anyone who uses munitions, including bombs and guns, to settle disputes. This is because we are not innocent.

A considerable number of military planes have been refuelling in Shannon. We wonder whether they are on their way to war zones to refuel fighter jets. Many of the planes are currently engaged in ongoing aerial refuelling sorties in support of Saudi-led bombings in Yemen. One hardly hears Yemen being discussed. If one turns on one's television tonight, it is unlikely that it will be mentioned. Nobody is interested in talking about it here. Since March, 2,300 civilians have been killed in Yemen, 400 of whom were children. It is a mad war. The Saudis could not even carry it out without the United States, and they have the United Kingdom to support them as well. What is occurring in Yemen is mindless. Refugees are being created every hour there but no one seems to be interested. The United States and United Kingdom are giving munitions and logistical support to those concerned. The United States is selling to the Saudi-led forces cluster bombs, which are banned in most countries. It is selling cluster bombs to drop and US-made fighter planes are being used to drop them, and we are okay with that. We are not giving out about it to those responsible.

We are still allowing US military planes to pass through Shannon.

We still give permits for civilian aircraft to come from America with arms. We have not seen yet what they have allowed in 2015, but in 2014, serious amounts of munitions came through Shannon and went to the Saudis. We give out about ISIS, and so we should; they are a mad lot. However, does the Minister of State realise that in the first half of 2015, the Saudi Arabian Government cut off the heads of 102 people, and still we have no problem trading with it? I do not understand that. If it does not matter what someone does because it has nothing to do with trade, we might as well sell them to everyone and facilitate all war efforts. When will an Irish Government have the courage to say that while it likes doing business with America and it is great that American companies come here and provide jobs - although it is unfortunate that they do not pay much tax - we do not want them using Shannon as a military air base to travel on and kill many people in the Middle East?

More than 2.5 million troops have come through Shannon since 2001. The Americans do not do body counts but a reputable organisation in America did one recently. It set out to count the number of civilians, not people carrying guns, who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan alone by American military hardware since 2001. The figure is 2.1 million, and we help them do it because we do not search the military planes but give permits for the civilian planes to carry such hardware. The Minister does not need me to remind him, but when the Labour Party was in opposition it wanted those planes searched. Why does it not want them searched now?

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