Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Former. I take back "old". It was not an ageist thing, trust me. I am nearly as old as him myself. Perhaps the new Taoiseach feels the esteemed leaders of the established parties talk more wisdom than us poor mortals. So be it.

I understand that the European Council meeting is mostly about migration and defence, or refugees and war, whichever way one looks at it. It would be good if the Taoiseach brought a new dimension to the European Council meetings. It is time that Ireland took a new position. We talk a lot about refugees and migrants. We probably do not ask enough as to where they come from. One of the best ways of creating refugees is dropping bombs on their homes. Sadly, we still allow Shannon Airport to be used as a US military base. US military proceed from there to cause serious havoc in many predominantly Muslim countries, from which the majority of the refugees and migrants are coming at the moment. It would be good if we took a step back and reasoned why we have so many problems in this area.

Interpreting the refugee crisis as a defence and security issue will not make the problem go away. We are throwing money at people in Libya, people who leave a lot to be desired, to stop refugees coming across. This Government cheerled when the country was being bombed to bits by the USA, UK and France. We were happy enough to see the place destroyed. Now it is in anarchy and there are unbelievable problems.

We seem okay about and pretty silent on the fact that refugees and migrants are being created every minute of every hour in Yemen at present. We have no problem in trading with the likes of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which, with the support of the USA, France and Germany, are bombing the place back into the stone age. There are many millions of people suffering on account of it.

I listened to the debate on Leaders' Questions today during which the new Taoiseach was challenged on not inviting Mr. Trump. Given that the Government is okay with the likes of Mr. Obama coming here, I do not really see a problem with Mr. Trump coming here, even though he is a lot worse. Mr. Obama holds the record for the US President longest at war in American history. He deported more undocumented migrants than any other US President in history and he signed off on the death warrants, without trial, of more people than all the US Presidents before him put together. While I agree that Mr. Trump is even worse, I do not know why the Irish Government has a problem trading with Russia when it is prepared to deal with the USA and the Saudis. We should not get into a selection process. I believe one should talk to everybody on the same terms. We should reopen our embassy in Iran. The notion that Iran might be a bigger threat to world security than the likes of the Saudis or the USA is frightening. It is about time we rethought the position on the Iranian embassy. Iran has 80 million people. As the House knows, Deputy Clare Daly and I were there a few months ago speaking at a conference. It is an amazing country.

I missed the Taoiseach's opening speech but I believe he mentioned John F. Kennedy. I do not know whether he was referring to the fact that John F. Kennedy was the one who started chemical warfare and the fact that there are children being born malformed in Vietnam today because of chemicals he dropped on that poor country many years ago. I am not sure whether the Taoiseach brought that up; perhaps he was raising some other issue regarding it. I ask him to reconsider allowing Shannon Airport to be used to help the American military to drop bombs on people's homes, thereby creating refugees and migrants who then become the source of a problem for the European Union.

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