Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is quite extraordinary. This seems to have escaped the notice of most people. It is bad enough that US troops are using our civilian airport at Shannon on their way to wreak havoc across the world. We need only look at the war in Yemen, supported by the US and the horrendous death and destruction there, but now it turns out we are going to subsidise the US troops as they go through Shannon. Were we not supposed to be a neutral country? Was that not what we used to claim at one point? This is purely embarrassing but it is more than; it is immoral. Those troops should not be there in the first place. Of course, Fianna Fáil has nothing to say on that, it never has had and now it wants to subsidise them. It is not good enough. It is outrageous. We have just been speaking about how we have not done enough to support low-income families. Under this section the Government is giving VAT subsidies to US soldiers who have come through here. How the hell is that right?