Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is a privilege to be able to speak in the Dáil and to have seven and a half minutes to do so but with that privilege goes a duty and responsibility to highlight matters. It is a sad day when this Dáil cannot agree on a unified motion that the Taoiseach could take with him to the US because we all agree that this President is misogynist and racist, has policies that are discriminatory and appears to be in contravention of the Geneva Convention. Yet this Dáil cannot agree a motion that the Taoiseach can take with him to speak on our behalf and on behalf of the people of Ireland. The motion on the extreme left with some support from others that the Taoiseach should not go increases the hypocrisy that has been apparent in this Chamber for the past while, including the discussion yesterday involving who said what to whom and so many other topics, including the health waiting lists where we have a post-fact situation and alternative facts. We have the cheek to talk about post-truth in the US, which exists and is frightening. As a woman, feminist and female Deputy, I am appalled by what President Trump is doing and afraid but I am more afraid of the narrative that ignores what led to his election in the US. This makes me more afraid.

During the election, the Democrats failed to go to Wisconsin and a number of other states. They arrogantly refused to listen to what the people were telling them and to hear the message that people voted for someone who they clearly knew was volatile and who lives for his ego and to feed his ego. They put this man in power such was their lack of belief in the alternative. Similarly in Ireland, if we go back to last night's discussion, we discuss everything but the issue. The Ceann Comhairle has asked us to stick to the topic and I am sticking to it and I believe Deputy Wallace stuck to it because there are implications for the way we deal with language and issues. Last night, we went around in circles and utterly failed to deal with the issue of alternative facts and alternative statements relating to a crisis that goes to the very heart of our democracy.

Similarly, with the simple motion asking the Taoiseach not to visit the US, we ignore the fact we have let every Taoiseach up to now go to the US without any problem. As Deputy Wallace has pointed out, many Presidents prior to this one have done dreadful things. A total of 60,000 troops passed through Shannon Airport, which is a civilian airport, not a military one, in 2016 alone. Over 2.5 million troops and rising have used Shannon Airport since 2002. On a daily basis, we have troops and military aircraft going through Shannon Airport. We have a post-truth situation in respect of the facts of this matter. Courageous people in a small group attend Shannon Airport on a regular basis and keep a close watch at great cost to their personal lives to try to provide the evidence that each Government has asked them to provide. We are back to what is done to whistleblowers. We talk about President Trump's hypocrisy and post-truth statements.

If we are to learn anything in the Dáil today, it is to learn what the messages from what is happening in the US are for our democracy, which is very fragile. What should we learn from that? One of things to learn is that speaking out in Ireland is a very dangerous thing to do and that regardless of who the person in question is, be it someone in politics, an ordinary person going to Shannon Airport or somebody in the health services, the Army or An Garda Síochána who has the courage to speak out, we will get them one way or another. If we do not see parallels between that type of society and the type that President Trump is openly cultivating, we are in serious trouble.

I have no difficulty with the Taoiseach going to the US. It is a long tradition. However, he should go with a very strong message from this Dáil that we abhor President Trump's policies and will not stand by them. He should meet all the groups over there who have gone out on a limb, again at great cost to themselves, and the progressive members of the Democratic Party. He should stand with them and use the opportunity to say that there is a different way and that Ireland represents a different way. Of course, we will have difficulty with that because, as the Minister of State knows, over many years in this Chamber, our neutrality has been interpreted in the most elastic way possible. Neutrality means that we can allow a submarine from the Netherlands to dock at Horgan's Quay in Cork and an armed sailor to step out on the quay because he is from a friendly country. This came from a response to a parliamentary question. We can allow the troops I have mentioned go through Shannon Airport and still call ourselves a neutral country. We want to deplore President Trump but, equally, we want to maintain the facilities at Shannon Airport without question.

I began by saying that it is a privilege to speak. We have a responsibility to highlight issues, discuss them rationally and come forward with our vision. There is a different way of doing things that is more sustainable for all of us in the long term. It is not sustainable to have military aircraft flying through Shannon Airport. It is not sustainable on health and safety grounds and on economic grounds because it is costing us a fortune. It is not sustainable if we are going to persist in saying that we are a neutral country. I shudder at what President Trump represents but I shudder even more at what is behind him. It has been stated that President Trump lost faith in General Michael Flynn not because he was lying but because it became public. That is exactly the same theme that dominates public life in this Chamber. It is only when facts become public that we discuss them but we do not have a horror of what happened before those facts became public at great cost to the personal lives of the whistleblowers and those courageous people who come forward.

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