We need to ensure a referendum on neutrality is an election issue

Over three years ago I submitted a petition to the The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions on behalf of civil society NGO Shannonwatch, on the issue of US military and CIA use of Shannon airport. The committee issued its final report on St Bridget’s day 2016.

The committee, and its chairperson, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD, are to be complimented for doing a reasonably comprehensive investigation into this petition.

However, given that the committee included members from FG, Labour, and Fianna Fáil parties, all complicit in the problems arising from US military and CIA use of Shannon since 2001, it is not surprising that the final report does not fully reflect the evidence and information presented to it by Shannonwatch and others, and does not comment at all on the serious human rights abuses, including hundreds of thousands of unjustified deaths that were facilitated by US military use of Shannon.