I propose an amendment to the Order of Business to seek that No. 13 be taken before No. 1. I refer to putting the Air Navigation and Transport (Amendment) Bill 2026 on the Order Paper. The Bill is grounded in the simple principle of upholding Irish neutrality, the sovereignty of our airspace and international law. For decades, Shannon Airport has been used as a transit hub for US military operations. Recent reporting in the media has raised serious questions about the scale of those activities and the lack of transparency surrounding them. The Irish Times has reported that 250 more US military aircraft passed through Irish airspace than was previously reported to the Government. At the same time, reports in The Ditch have consistently highlighted the role of commercial aircraft providers carrying weapons through Irish airspace. For example, in just one week in February last year Lufthansa carried over 1 tonne of munitions to Israel on three flights over Irish territory. American Airlines carried munitions used in the illegal war on Iran just last month, carried on passenger aircraft, including critical parts for launching missiles. None of these were sanctioned by the Government.

Under Irish navigation law, carrying weapons of war through Irish airspace requires an exemption from the transport Minister. Otherwise, it is an indictable offence. However, exemptions have not been applied for in many cases.

We have consistently heard from the Government that it is impossible to know what is being transported. Therefore, we need a random on-the-spot inspection regime. This is the central issue that my Bill seeks to address. The legislation addresses the claims by this Government that it does not have sufficient powers to inspect commercial operators transporting arms and munitions through the State. The Bill will introduce a random inspection and enforcement regime with penalties for flight operators who breach Ireland's rules on the transportation of munitions.

My Bill also responds to long held and growing public concerns about Ireland's complicity in actions linked to human rights abuses, particularly in relation to the use of Irish territory in the context of the cruel deportation flights carried out by ICE from the US last year, which we have recorded as landing in Shannon Airport between May 2025 and February this year. I do not believe the Government should be playing any part in these removals. We have seen reports of Palestinians being shackled on an aeroplane and deported to the West Bank, which, as we all know, is an occupied territory. Deporting people to an occupied territory is illegal under international law. It is horrifying that people are being shackled on aeroplanes that are landing and passing through Shannon Airport.

The Bill seeks to extend what qualifies as a State aircraft by including aircraft operating as custom flights, thus requiring custom flights to abide by human rights standards and seek exemptions before landing in Shannon. It is my expectation that the Irish Government would never provide an exemption for ICE-style deportations and would, therefore, stop these flights landing in Shannon.

This Bill is about oversight, accountability and ensuring that Ireland is not facilitating the movement of weapons or participation in actions that may undermine international law, human rights or the values that we claim to uphold. I hope my colleagues will support my proposal to amend the Order of Business.

I second the amendment.

I am very happy to support Senator Stephenson's Bill. I was deeply disappointed when my arms embargo Bill was blocked in this House. It was, again, a Bill seeking to address the transit of arms. Senator Stephenson's Bill is taking a different approach, but an equally constructive one, to the wider issue of the transit of arms and other inappropriate uses of our airspace and airports.

The Bill is very constructive. I believe it addresses many of the reasons and rationales we heard from the Government in relation to my Bill. I hope we will see it progressing through the House. I am delighted to support and co-sign it.

I also propose another amendment to the Order of Business to introduce my own Bill. I formally propose that No. 12 be taken before No. 1. I am proposing a Bill which seeks to build on something we should be very proud of, namely, Ireland's record on disarmament. Ireland was the first country to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. That was done by Frank Aiken. Ireland played a key role in hosting the negotiations to ban cluster munitions. I was there myself. They are one of the most appalling weapons that specifically target and affect civilians in their impact. We also played a key role in the anti-personnel mine ban convention. This is Ireland's record in disarmament. It is something we should be proud of - in fact we should be standing over it at a time when we are seeing a slipping away in that regard. Very worryingly, countries are leaving the cluster bomb and landmine conventions.

This is our opportunity to move forward and look to the new and very serious threat posed by lethal autonomous weapon systems. These systems are defined as any weapons system with autonomy at its critical function, a weapon system that can select and attack targets without human intervention, often using AI. It separates the decision to take a human life from an individual or a command structure that can be held accountable and, instead, we have a situation where an algorithm, programme or piece of software can in fact have the ability to decide who lives or dies in the areas where they are operating.

This is a perversion of our humanity. It is vital that Ireland take a leading role in pushing for legally binding treaties, regulating and, where appropriate, banning these categories of weapons. In 2023, Ireland signed a UN General Assembly motion tabled by Austria calling for the co-operation of states on the regulation of these weapons and supporting their prohibition in situations where there is no guaranteed human control or compliance with international humanitarian law. The purpose of this Bill is to put that in place. It is for Ireland to give leadership, not just in pushing for a global treaty but also on a national level to bring in a prohibition of this specific category of weapons system.

It is important to note that areas like AI, defence and military action are not part of the EU law structures. For example, the AI Act explicitly carves out and does not address the use of these technologies in relation to defence or weaponry because that is a national level competence. That is why we need national level leadership. Ireland, by bringing a prohibition through, will be in a much stronger position to then drive the necessary international conversation.

When we think about these programmes and how they come in, we can look to some of the programmes we have seen. Some of them may technically meet the definition here. I have drawn on the International Red Cross. Others may not. There are programmes that automatically target people based on a family member coming home, for example, the "Where's Daddy" and "Lavender" programmes. They are designed to target children, by their nature. This is something on which Ireland can give leadership. The Government has stated that this is its position internationally. I hope it will support the Bill to prohibit lethal autonomous weapons. I give credit to Stephen Reid in my office, who has given leadership in this whole programme of developing this area of work.

I second the amendment.