Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

If we were genuinely concerned about the humanitarian problems and conditions in these countries, we would not allow aircraft to land in Shannon to go on there and wreak havoc on these peoples. The Minister of State says that one of the conditions on military aircraft to land are that the aircraft must be unarmed, carries no arms, ammunition or explosives and it must not engage in intelligence gathering and does not form part of any military operation or exercise.

They do not fly empty military planes around the world. They put stuff in them. It costs over €250,000 for a US military plane to make a round trip from America through Shannon to the Middle East and back. They do not leave them empty: it would make no sense.

It beggars belief that we can turn a blind eye to the destruction that we are allowing to take place. Back in the day, the former Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, himself asked that the planes be searched. Before going into government, the Labour Party asked for the planes to be searched. However, when people go into government, they are not prepared to search the planes. It is outrageous.

Modest wine bars import wine from small producers in Italy. The Revenue Commissioners regularly check the loads to see what they contain. We tell them what is in it and show them the papers, but the fact is they are dead right to check the shipment because they cannot be certain of what is in it unless they do. We cannot possibly know what the Americans are up to or what is in a US military plane if we do not search it. One could not expect a child to believe that there are no arms or ammunition coming through Shannon. We know there is. It is outrageous that the Government continues to allow this to happen and to allow the destruction that is caused by the US military in these regions.

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