Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. I thank the Minister of State for coming in. First of all, I would like to apologise. I came in on the DART this morning and there was a false signal at Bray, so I was delayed as a result. I thank the House for its flexibility.

I ask that the Minister for Transport state how much the Department of Transport has paid the Irish Aviation Authority. These are exempted fees for en route air traffic control services provided to US and foreign military aircraft passing through Irish airspace under the Minister's control.

In Ireland there is always a focus on aircraft on the ground at Shannon Airport and on troops on the ground there. In fact, I am the only Irish journalist ever to have interviewed US troops transiting through Shannon, of which millions of them do en route to the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere.

My focus this morning is on aircraft that are passing through our airspace. These are aircraft that we cannot see. They are up at 37,000 ft. or 39,000 ft. There are literally hundreds of these military aircraft passing through our airspace. Under an international agreement, Eurocontrol, they do not have to pay their air navigation control costs; we pick up that tab.

The last time this question was asked in the early noughties, the Irish taxpayer was paying €10,000 per day towards the air navigation costs of US military aircraft heading towards Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite the fact we are a militarily neutral state, we were making a financial contribution of €10,000 per day for these aircraft up at 37,000 ft. carrying troops, weapons and ammunition.

My reason for asking this question is that there ar 600,000 children in Rafah. At present the United States is supplying the Israelis with heavy ordinance BLU-109, 1,000 kg high-explosive devices. BLU stands for bomb live unit. The United States is also supplying guided bomb units for deployment by aircraft in Rafah, where there are 600,000 children kettled into that place. Their only cover is canvass from tents. They are malnourished and they do not have water or sanitation. The acts are, as I said yesterday, if not genocidal, then femicidal. Some 34 women are killed everyday in Rafah as well as a larger number of children. Three children are being killed every two hours on a daily basis in Rafah.

If I get one piece of high explosives, the size of a cigarette packet, and I detonate it under a car, as happened in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, for example, the vehicle would be unrecognisable after that amount of high explosives. Can you imagine the impact of 1,000 kg of high explosives dropped into a densely populated area? I know about this because I have seen it as a peacekeeper. I have seen the Israelis do it to Lebanese civilians. What you get with high explosives are high heat, shockwaves and the internal organs of children and women being pulped and their bones shattered. They suffer horrific soft-tissue injuries, decapitation, limb separation and the shrapnel effects are equally horrific.Shrapnel effects are equally horrific. We, as a State, have shown great leadership in condemning Israel's disproportionate response in Rafah and Gaza. However, we must not make a financial contribution to the delivery of such weapons that result in the killing of, at this point, 35,000 innocent civilians - some 25,000 of whom have been positively identified, including 8,000 children and infants. I ask the Minister of Transport, Deputy Ryan, to tell us how much we are contributing, and whether we could raise this with our American friends and ask them not to transit through our airspace in this way.