Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister will be aware, a human rights catastrophe is unfolding in Yemen, a catastrophe aided and abetted by the US Government. Much outrage has been expressed about the slaughter in Syria and Iraq but very little about the daily bombing in Yemen where thousands have perished since Saudi Arabia and its allies began an air campaign a year and a half ago. Nor has there been much public criticism of American aid to the campaign.

Yemen was plunged into civil war in 2014 when Houthi rebel ousted the Saudi backed dictator Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. Saudi leaders commenced a military drive to defeat the rebels and reinstal Hadi as President. The Saudi bombing campaign began in March 2015 and Saudi Arabia has intentionally targeted numerous homes, factories, markets, schools and hospitals. The methods used by Saudi Arabia very likely constitute war crimes against the civilian Yemeni population, blowing up funerals, prisons and hospitals, slaughtering men, women and children. Amnesty International has called on the US to halt the shipping of weapons that are being used in the Yemen war, citing data that a confirmed US-made explosive was used in an attack on a Yemeni hospital on 15 August. The medical facility, Abs hospital, run by Médecins sans Frontières was hit by a strike that left 11 people dead and 19 others injured. I know the Minister will agree that any attack on a medical facility in a war zone is an affront to humanity. Fragments from US-made MK82 guided bombs have also been found at a site of a Saudi bombing of a community hall, where 140 people were killed and over 500 injured. The ITV news correspondent, Neil Connery, has verified this and there are other examples I can cite if required.

The world knows the key role the US is playing in this war. Indeed, the US has supplied Saudi Arabia with more that €20 billion worth of weapons during its Yemen campaign. We also know the US has flown missions for Saudi aircraft and supplied Saudi Arabia with weapons and targeted intelligence and is, therefore, complicit in Saudi Arabia's atrocities by any normal definition. Is the Government of which the Minister is part also complicit? Despite numerous requests the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will not provide any information about the US military planes that use Shannon. Shannonwatch has been keeping its own watch for many years and its figures show a significant increase in the numbers that passed through in September. We know that the US military is the main supplier of mid-air refuelling planes for the Saudis with regard to this war and we know that an increased number of mid-air refuellers have passed through Shannon this summer. A large number of contracted US troop carriers and cargo planes have passed through Shannon, which have been granted permits to take weapons through the airport by the Minister's Department. Omni Air International has been a regular carrier and we know from flight records that one destination for recent flights in September was Al-Udeid air base in Qatar. This is the main headquarters for the Qatari airforce that, along with Saudi Arabia, has been bombing and killing innocent Yemeni civilians. It also serves as a logistics command and hub for US operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and now Yemen - civilian life has disintegrated in those places yet the Government and the Department pretend it is nothing to do with us.

Let us join the dots on this. We know that Saudi Arabia is guilty of heinous war crimes and that the US military has supplied the weaponry for these war crimes. We know that the US military use Shannon as, in the words of Tom Clonan, a "forward base" in the prosecution of all these wars. We know from flight records that military flights from Shannon have gone to a key military airport engaged in the Yemen conflict. Is our Government, by extension, guilty of war crimes? I believe this is the case. There was a commitment in the last programme for Government to enforce a prohibition on the use of Irish airspace, airports and related facilities for purposes not in line with international law. Why is it not enforcing it? How can the Government be certain that US planes travelling from Shannon are not being used to aid Saudi Arabia without searching the planes? What does the Minister have to say about the US role in the slaughter of Yemeni citizens? Is the Government really going to turn a blind eye again?