Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The reply of playing dumb, seeing no evil and hearing no evil is not adequate in this scenario, particularly from a member of the Cabinet. For the Minister of State to say he does not know what is on board because the Defence Forces do not search aircraft is pretty convenient when other arms of the State have the power to search but absolutely do not bother.

It is almost exactly 17 years since the first prisoners arrived in Guantanamo Bay. We now know many of them were transported through Shannon Airport. Back in those days, we at least pretended we were not comfortable with it. This is no longer the case as we just say we do not know what is going on and that we do not really care. We know that one or a number of the carriers have regularly transited through Shannon. Some detainees have been in Guantanamo Bay for 15 years without any charge. Many of them are Yemenis. If they got out, what would they be going back to — a country destroyed by war, facilitated by the US military, which the Minister of State's Defence Forces personnel are tied up minding? I would like the information the Minister of State said he could get for me. I would like him to raise with the Cabinet the fact that if his personnel do not have the right to search, the Garda might do it and that he would help the force, thereby freeing up Defence Forces personnel to do their job elsewhere and allowing us to reclaim our right to be a neutral country.

See this speech in context