Yemen and Shannon Airport
Senator Gavan condemned the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen and accused the Government of facilitating military flights through Shannon Airport. After objections and interruptions, he argued Ireland cannot speak credibly about Aleppo while ignoring Shannon.
I refer to the situation in Yemen where every ten minutes a child dies of starvation and 400,000 children are facing that stark fate in the coming months. Ten thousand people have been killed in the civil war. We are playing our part in that war. We helped to bring cluster bombs - imagine that - through Shannon Airport to Saudi Arabia in November 2014. IThe Government's information confirmed this in the reply to a freedom of information request. A total of 272 flights with various materiel, including bombs, were permitted to pass through Shannon Airport in 2014. I am glad to say the Government has since taken decisive action, in that it has decided not to release information now. Let us call a spade a spade. I concur with those who express concern about the situation in Aleppo. As for inviting the Russian ambassador to Leinster House, however, we are in no position to talk while we are supporting the bombing of men, women and children in Yemen on a daily basis through the use of Shannon Airport. Are we pretending it it is not happening? I would like to hear from other Senators in the Chamber. It should not just be Sinn Féin raising this topic.
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It is not. I have called for the establishment of an inquiry into the use of Shannon Airport.
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I apologise. The Senator has been strong on the issue.
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It has been raised at the foreign affairs committee many times.
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Given that the Labour Party, in particular, recognised that there was a problem at Shannon Airport five years ago and had the issue incorporated in the programme for Government, I do not understand the silence on that front. During its five years in government there was silence on the use of Shannon Airport. It is time we all faced up to our responsibilities in that regard. We can have no credibility talking about the situation in Aleppo until we tackle the elephant in the room and confront the fact that, according to the Government's figures, cluster bombs were transferred through Shannon Airport.
Therefore, I am calling for the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to come to the House. I have been calling for that consistently week after week. I hope he will come in as soon as possible after Christmas in order that we can debate the issue and hear what everyone has to say.