Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I begin by paying tribute to Senator Bacik for her motion on Syria, to which we have all signed up. It shows what this Chamber is capable of, and the fact that we could all negotiate successfully to agree on such an important issue shows that this House can at times be a very effective unified force for doing the right thing. I will therefore bring up Shannon Airport again. It is the elephant in the room, I am afraid, because we know what is going on at Shannon Airport. I can read the House reports from this week alone on the aircraft, including commercial aircraft, that have come and gone. We know that they are carrying troops and ammunitions. We know that this week the troops had to stay over in Clare because there was a problem with the aeroplane. I do not make this point in a party-political manner, I just want us to be honest with ourselves. How can we on the one hand quite rightly demand peace in Syria while on the other turn a blind eye to the use of our civilian airport in Shannon to carry troops, munitions and weapons being used in the wars in Syria, Yemen and Iraq? In all honesty, how can the excellent motion on Syria have real standing when the world can see that we are turning a blind eye to what is continuing to happen at Shannon Airport?

I am delighted to hear Senator Mark Daly raise the issue of neutrality but I have not heard him say anything about Shannon Airport. There was a time when Niall Andrews and other good people such as Dan Breen in Fianna Fáil were prepared to stand up for our neutrality, not just talk about it. However, there is now a gross hypocrisy - those are the only words I can use - in this regard because we all know what is going on in Shannon and we all know that we are turning a blind eye to the transport through Shannon Airport of military troops, weaponry and munitions that were used to blow up women and children in Yemen last Saturday, which continues to happen. I therefore ask the Leader whether we could have another look at this issue. I ask that we be very serious about this and not decide we are only in favour of peace when it suits us.