Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not agree with that. It is a fundamental distortion to suggest we are complicit in genocide and an outrageous assertion. It is also a bit propagandistic. I knocked on a door recently and the person who answered said to me that all the weapons are being supplied from Shannon. They had no evidence for this statement but this is what is being told. That misinformation is being created deliberately. There is also a degree of confusion being created deliberately between planes flying through sovereign airspace and landing at Shannon Airport. These are completely different scenarios. It is entirely possible for people to fly through our airspace and we may not pick up on it. I acknowledge that. We are not a military nation. We do not have fighter jets, nor are we patrolling the skies. We need a bit of perspective here in terms of the issue of sovereign airspace versus the airspace we control outside of our sovereign airspace.

10 o’clock

There is a fundamental difference. The challenge is that no state exercises its jurisdiction over military aircraft that land. If the President of America lands at Shannon Airport, Air Force One, which is a military aircraft, is not inspected. There are different types of aircraft like that.

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