I hand it to the Taoiseach, who has demonstrated by his answer that he has no more interest in being the leader of a sovereign nation than I thought he had. He has patently failed to address any of the issues I raised, including the illegal use of Shannon Airport by the US military, and there is concrete evidence that what exists is not what the Tánaiste has told us on repeated occasions.

Many Irish people are proud of our troops, and I am proud of them as my own father was in the Congo and I come from an Army family. That is nonetheless different from sending troops into the illegally occupied Golan Heights. The Taoiseach has gone on about the appalling Assad regime and all of us would agree with such a statement but not with the the idea of facilitating the United States, which is the biggest user of chemical weapons on the globe. It turned a blind eye to Iraq when it used chemical weapons on Iranians: how could the US say anything when it provided the co-ordinates to unleash the chemical weapons? Agent Orange was used in Vietnam and white phosphorus has been used by the Israelis in Gaza. If the Taoiseach was the leader of a neutral country, he would now see the opportunity to put chemical weapons beyond use in Syria as a good thing. It is not just about Syria and we should take them out in the Middle East, including in Israel, which is at the heart of the matter.

Hear, hear.

Given that we fought to be on the human rights council as an independent nation, why should we not take the role seriously and stop being a lap dog to the US authorities?

I pointed out the exceptional competence and professionalism of Irish troops over the years and I am glad the Deputy shares the view, although that is slightly different from what she stated initially. We have a very clear view which has been stated on more than one occasion of our complete and utter abhorrence and opposition to rendition flights. We have had very close relations with the United States over very many years and we have been assured - and can be happy - there are no rendition flights going through Shannon. If the Deputy has evidence to the contrary, she should produce it. Shannon Airport has been used for very many years for flights in transit to various locations in the world, including by the American military. It has not been used by passengers or travellers on rendition flights. The issue has been raised in a serious fashion on a number of occasions.