Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is an important issue. I note the Minister of State stated in a reply earlier this year that the amount of money expended on this area was over €135,000. In essence, what we are talking about is Ireland giving over time, space and hundreds of thousands of euros, that could be better spent elsewhere, to activities that are in reality a flagrant breach of our neutrality so that the US military can be facilitated in terms of its activities abroad. I would like the Minister of State to deal with the issue of Yemen in particular. There is a strong suspicion that Ireland may have played a role in one of the most horrific civilian massacres in Saudi Arabia's campaign in Yemen in that it facilitated the use of Shannon Airport for the transportation of weaponry to Saudi Arabia which ended up being used to kill civilians in Yemen. Will the Minister of State comment on the spike in aircraft activity around the NATO exercises in Poland earlier this year and on use of Shannon Airport in that regard and whether it is not glaringly obvious that our neutrality is being undermined by these activities.

See this speech in context