Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for his apology. He does not need to apologise to me - nobody does - these things happen. I just hope that next time around the rules of the House are upheld because it is a matter for all individual Deputies rather than the priority of the parties, which normally prevails in here. It is nobody's fault, this stuff happens. I am absolutely delighted to be here and I am very glad that the Bill was selected from the lottery. I compliment the Deputies for bringing it forward. We have been given the opportunity to do something very positive here tonight. This motion is not about standing idly by. It is about being proactive, internationalist, standing up for human rights and the peaceful organisation of the world. It is very interesting to see how language has changed. Time after time the Minister of State kept talking about military neutrality but this is about positive neutrality. It is not a stand at the seams and do nothing policy. It is not about Ireland just not being involved in armed conflict. The Bill is very clear that it is also about not aiding foreign powers in any way in the preparation for war or other armed conflict. That, in and of itself, is a proactive policy which should be supported. When listening to the Minister of State I did not know whether to laugh or to cry because he told us his commitment to neutrality was as strong as it ever was, and maybe that was when we started to get worried. It is another Irish solution to an Irish problem. The Minister of State talks the talk about neutrality but he ignores the elephant in the room or rather the Hercules C-130 on the runway at Shannon. This does not happen arbitrarily but on average at least two times a day. Last month Shannonwatch photographed such aircraft six times in the one day at Shannon Airport. Two weeks ago a NATO warship docked and refuelled at Cork Harbour with armed personnel on board. Last year the Department gave 600 exemptions for military aircraft to land at Shannon Airport and 700 exemptions for aircraft to carry weaponry.

What does the Minister of State think these aircraft are doing? The figures are there. Since 2001 some 2.5 million troops have passed through Shannon, over 60,000 in the last year alone, en route to the Middle East. The Government has given permission for hundreds of millions of tonnes to pass through Irish airspace to locations such as Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and so on. What does Minister of State think all that transit is about? It costs substantial amounts of money to move this type of aircraft. It does not come cheap. It defies credibility that this is being done in compliance with the regulations laid down that to adhere to our neutrality we are not involved in military conflict operations and do not carry weapons, ammunition and the like. It could not be the case. Not only must we speculate on the bounds of credibility, we know this for a fact, as Deputy Crowe has said. In our court case in 2015, three people gave direct evidence of seeing, personally and directly, weaponry on board US aircraft. This is a fact. In fairness to the judge in that case, he made a point in his summation that he accepted without any doubt whatsoever the bona fides and the expertise of the witnesses we had assembled but that he could not adjudicate the picture because of the charge that we were there. I would actually have more respect for the Minister of State if he said we are not really neutral at all, we want to allow the US military to basically operate in Ireland whatever way it likes because we might get a few jobs out of it, it is good for the economy and it is good for multinationals. In reality, that is the Government's position and rather than dressing it up in this duplicitous way which is very disrespectful to the Irish people, we know from our history that it would be entirely appropriate and possible for the Government to deny permission for such aircraft. We know that previous taoisigh such as Seán Lemass ordered planes to be checked. For the Minister of State to say that a referendum could not be put to the people because of cost is incredibly insulting when one looks at the human cost of the global war machine and the consequences. We are complicit in this by allowing Shannon Airport to be used. There are 65 million people displaced by war. Last year 24 people every minute were forced to flee their homes as a direct result of military conflict. One in every 113 people globally is now a refugee, an asylum seeker or an internally displaced person and 51% of those people are children. We are complicit in that situation. It is a fact and we are not even speculating on it.

The international arms trade is a huge contributor to this situation yet we continue to do business with countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, transporting dual use goods there when it is not clear what the end use will be. Freedom of information requests have shown many of these exports are on their way to countries, for example Saudi Arabia, where it is indisputable they are getting co-operation from the United States which has used its aircraft to refuel Saudi aircraft on the way to unleash appalling butchery and hardship on the people of Yemen.

Based on the information we have seen through freedom of information requests, we have to be complicit in this. The figures tally with the number of refuelling US aircraft that went through Shannon Airport and onwards in that direction. There could be no other conclusion drawn from the situation. To come in here and say we are neutral, we love being neutral and we want to keep neutrality belies the reality on the ground. The position of the Minister of State is not akin to the wishes and intentions of the Irish people, because Irish people do not want to be part of this situation. We know an online poll conducted yesterday indicated 57% of people are in favour of enshrining neutrality in the Constitution. Deputy Wallace commissioned a Red C opinion poll last year, which gave figures of approximately 60% of the population supporting neutrality. If the same poll were taken now it would probably be higher, given the outcome of the US election and the imminent presidency of Donald Trump, which is a little ironic because Donald Trump's interest in foreign invasion is probably a little less than President Barack Obama, who signed off on a record number of assassinations and an unprecedented level of military activity.

Historically, our neutrality has probably got a lot more to do with the war against Britain and the insurgent nationalism in the early days of the State when Irish people were justifiably trying to shake off British imperialism. The anti-conscription campaign politicised a layer of Irish people, who went on to join the struggle for independence. It may have started in this way but it has developed into something very different. Our neutrality is something that Irish people hold very dear. When they go on holidays they like to be recognised as Irish. They do not get insulted when they are called English because they do not want to be identified with an aggressor nation. They are, if we like, affiliated with the idea of being part of the peoples of the world rather than facilitating armed imperialist world powers. Given this outlook and because Irish people are all over the world, we have the potential to punch way above our weight in terms of a positive contribution to world relations for a world that would be dominated more in terms of peaceful co-existence rather than imperialist pursuit. The Minister of State told us one of the most serious issues he has with the Bill is the potential effects which cannot be foreseen. This utterly ridiculous for a constitutional amendment. The attitude the Government has taken to this beggars belief. What is it afraid of? To paraphrase the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald, why not let the people decide because they are the best arbiters.

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