Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)

The arms industry is supplying arms for genocide to be carried out in Palestine. The Tánaiste knows that. He has spoken about it. This group represents the arms industry, it lobbies for the arms industry and it has an open door to the Department. I know of a series of meetings. Is the Tánaiste confirming that the minutes, or whatever we are going to call them, of all 11 meetings that have been held are available? He should be able to confirm that. He should be able to tell me the nature of those meetings, where they were held, how long they lasted, who attended and so on. None of that is apparent. It is completely opaque. If the Tánaiste wants transparency, the least he can do is to give us an accurate record of the meetings and to tell us their purpose, who called them, their outcomes and so on. This is the arms industry. It has no moral conscience and exists for profit. Its weapons are being used to murder people and to commit genocide. As a neutral sovereign State, if our Department of Defence is meeting a lobbying group, at the very least it should be open, transparent and accountable about it. When the people who are involved are on TV shows or the radio, they should make declarations as to their background and interests.

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