The Government's claims in the Nice debate that neutrality was safe were belied by the use of Shannon Airport by US military aircraft in the build-up to war on Iraq, the Green Party TD, Mr John Gormley, said yesterday.
"I do not trust them on the question of neutrality," he told an Irish Anti-War Movement news conference in Dublin. Planes were landing every day in Shannon carrying US troops in desert fatigues: "That is not compatible with Irish neutrality."
"It would be more accurate to describe us now as non-aligned," he said.
"For the next 10 days of the Nice debate, we will be concentrating on the military issue."
Speaking at the same press conference, Mr Daithí Doolan, director of the Sinn Féin referendum campaign, said that, as war loomed ever closer, neutrality was becoming "a real and tangible issue" in the Nice debate. The Seville Declaration by the Government was "not worth the paper it is written on".
"Now in the midst of this debate we are moving nearer and nearer to a war in Iraq," he said.
"A number of hours down the road at Shannon we see the reality of this Government's attitude to neutrality." US forces were being allowed "to dock on our soil".
Criticising the Minister for Foreign Affairs, he said: "Brian Cowen is out of step with reality, out of step with the majority of people."
Ms Bríd Smyth of the Socialist Workers' Party said the presence of US troops in Shannon "makes a mockery of the idea that we have neutrality in this State".
The coming Iraqi war was not about democracy or getting rid of an acknowledged tyrant: "It is about access to oil and the natural resources of that region." There should be "no blood for oil".
Mr Roger Cole of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA) said senior politicians in Fianna Fáil had been accused of corruption over building development and he warned of further corruption in the context of military expenditure and the growth of an armaments industry in Ireland.
Socialist Party TD Mr Joe Higgins said the "cynicism" of the Seville Declaration affirming Irish neutrality did not impede the Government from giving every assistance to the US war machine.
Mr Richard Boyd Barrett of the Socialist Workers' Party said there would be a peaceful demonstration at Shannon Airport on Saturday and it was proposed to walk from the entrance to the terminal building. He appealed to the Garda Síochána to allow the marchers to proceed unimpeded and he asked the media to provide more accurate figures of the numbers attending demonstrations.
He showed a petition against the use of Shannon, signed by a number of leading public figures. He demanded a full public debate on the use of Shannon adding that there was a "glaring contrast" between assurances that Irish neutrality was safe and the reality.
Later, at a Fianna Fáil news conference on Nice, the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, said that civilian aircraft carrying unarmed US military personnel as passengers had been using Shannon since the early 1950s routinely and this was a lucrative source of income.
He said the Government had given specific permission to US military aircraft to use Shannon as part of the war on terrorism in Afghanistan but if the US sought to use the airport for a war in Iraq, a separate Government decision to give permission would be needed.
"If a particular conflict did arise, obviously the Government would take a view at that time," he said.
"You would have to sit down and take a conscious decision to say yes or no to that type of traffic as opposed to the routine traffic which has been going on for decades," he added.