Seanad debates

Wednesday, 8 March 2006

Use of Irish Airports: Motion.

 

6:00 pm

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Fianna Fail)

Such a committee would be used by certain opponents of the United States, as indicative that the Government has taken sides with the US, thereby, ignoring our neutral stance. For 50 years, Shannon Airport has been used by military blocs; during the Cold War, the Russians used the airport when they were not flavour of the month through all sorts of atrocities.

There were no objection from the revisionists at the time who now seek to change Government policy on US military flights through Shannon Airport. The committee is a backdoor way of getting at the flights. It would establish an unhelpful witch-hunt.

The agenda is not about extraordinary rendition or torture on Irish soil. It has more to do with an agenda associated with military flights through Shannon Airport. The issue of extraordinary rendition and torture has been dealt with through the assurances, as the Minister of State outlined, given by the US Administration. I am prepared to accept those assurances in good faith. Not to accept them from a friendly nation and a country with which Ireland has enjoyed an enormous level of positive social and cultural interaction would be a setback.

There was much talk about the necessity to maintain a good working relationship with the United States. Senator Quinn used the soap slogan about telling a friend of his or her body odour. An old saying is that if a friend needs to be told something, do not do it from the altar. There are diplomatic channels through which the Government has on many occasions managed to get its point across to the US Administration about the atrocities that have taken place in Europe. Senator Brian Hayes spoke about it being an innocuous committee. The House certainly does not have an innocuous image in the US.

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