Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are facilitating them, but the price is unbelievably disappointing. Will the Minister not admit that what they are doing is destructive and that it has not helped peace? Did he read what the Pope said about it only last week, that the arms industry has just run out of control? The Pope stated what is happening is ludicrous but it is all in the interest of making money. We are facilitating it. When are we going to call a spade a spade and say that the Irish people do not like the idea of facilitating the US military machine, that 2.5 million US troops have gone through Shannon since 2001 and that we give permits for arms and munitions to go to these regions and to drop bombs on people's homes, killing some of them and creating refugees of what remains?

The Irish people do not want to be associated with the Minister's philosophy. It is about time the Government woke up to it. It is outrageous that we are continuing to support the US military position, for financial reasons and, perhaps, ideological reasons, but it is not what the Irish people want.

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