Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-15
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Paul Murphy (PBP), Dublin South-West

The backdrop to the wars, the genocides and the interventions we have seen over the past number of years is the rivalry between the declining power of the US and the emerging power of China. That is the context in which the Government has tried very vigorously to draw Ireland more and more openly into the US-led NATO camp. We can see now in terms of the war crimes being committed in Iran what that means. It is why the vast majority of people defend our neutrality, want to protect our triple lock and do not want to see us involved in US-led wars. It is why people will be on the streets at 1 o'clock on Saturday demanding the protection of our neutrality.
The rubber hits the road when it comes to the question of Shannon Airport. The Taoiseach said, when he was in the US, that there was no strong evidence that Trump was using Shannon Airport to pursue the war in Iran. What does he mean by that? Has he inspected any of the planes? Has he evidence? Every single day, there are US military plans going through Shannon. Where does the Taoiseach think they are going? They may not be going directly to Iran. They are going to the Ramstein air base in Germany and then on from there into the Middle East.
It is time to follow the example of other European countries, some of which are even NATO members, and stop allowing the US to use our airports.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-15