Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)

I join in welcoming Cara Darmody and her father Mark to the Public Gallery. I commend them and their family on their tireless and fierce advocacy for children who so desperately require additional services and supports. We will continue to work with them.

Ten years ago today, we the people of Ireland used our votes to make marriage equality a reality and to make grá the law. I had intended to raise this happy anniversary with the Tánaiste today and to speak about the policies we still need to implement to realise the equal rights of all LGBTQ+ people in Ireland but breaking news has overtaken us. Instead I must raise with the Tánaiste some shocking international news that has broken since we stood in this Chamber yesterday, recalling of course that as we face into the weekend there is still no sign of any international aid coming through for those children and infants in Gaza. Many thousands of them are facing starvation with dire warnings that 14,000 infants will die by the weekend without this aid.

Then overnight two young Israeli diplomats were murdered in cold blood outside the Jewish museum in Washington DC. I want to join in condemning outright their brutal murders. We know that an Irish diplomat was present and we are glad to hear they were unharmed. That news was accompanied by word that the Israel Defense Forces, IDF, had fired shots near an international delegation that included two Irish diplomats in Jenin. This must be condemned.

Then we come to the shocking revelation that Donald Trump's deportation flights are refuelling in Ireland at Shannon Airport. These are deportation flights that are illegal and taking place in violation of a US court order. In other words, an Irish airport is being used as an instrument to violate human rights. On Tuesday, a judge in Massachusetts ruled that the Trump Administration's attempt to deport migrants from a number of countries to South Sudan unquestionably violated an earlier court order. We understand that lawyers for seven of the men being deported were given little more than 24-hour's notice of their clients' expulsion. We understand that one of the planes in question, flight JNY588A, is due to refuel at Shannon Airport on its return journey from Sudan later today at about 9.30 p.m., according to flight logs. This is just the latest controversy about the use of Shannon Airport by the US Administration. We know the planes are landing at Shannon Airport en route to deliver bombs to Israel for use in that brutal bombardment of Gaza that has caused so much death and so much devastation and is the cause of many children's lives being ended. Yes, Irish Government Ministers have shown an astounding lack of curiosity about how our airspace and airports are being used by the US at any given time. The Tánaiste will be aware of the barrage of revelations about US flights refuelling at Shannon Airport in the past two years, but the State's exact position on this remains something of a mystery.

I have some very specific questions. Why is Ireland allowing US flights to land here en route to deliver destruction to Gaza? On the deportation point, was the Tánaiste aware that flights involving illegal deportation and disappearance of people from America are also landing here? How many of these flights have refuelled at Shannon Airport? Will Ireland continue to allow deportation flights to land where they are in violation of court orders? Will flight JNY588A be allowed to land this evening at Shannon Airport?

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