Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I am prepared to accept the word of the elected Minister for Foreign Affairs of this country. He asked a direct question of the Secretary of State of the United States, a friendly country, and was given the answer that nothing illegal was carried out on the sovereign territory of the Republic of Ireland. I accept that simply because that is the way international relations operate between friendly countries.

Notwithstanding that, if there were any specific evidence — and there are now two reports on the matter — to suggest that anything illegal had been carried out on this country's territory, I would support a move by the Government and the Garda Síochána to investigate it and, if necessary, board the aeroplanes that are alleged to have been involved in that illegality. However, no such evidence has been presented to date. It is extraordinary, although probably understandable given that this is a political Chamber, that there would be a suggestion that the Government, regardless of its political hue, representing the people of this country and exercising the sovereign right of this country to make its own decisions internationally, would tolerate or accept any such illegality being conducted if there was even a scintilla of evidence that it was being hoodwinked.

Nevertheless, that argument was weakened to a degree by the incident involving the US marine who was transported through this country to an American stockade to answer for an army crime that had nothing to do with the issue being debated here today. Unfortunately, it has been used as an example of perfidy on the part of the American authorities.