Call for US military ban at Shannon if Greenland taken
The Government should ban the US military from using Shannon Airport, and the EU should close all US military bases across the bloc, if Donald Trump acts on his threat to take Greenland, an opposition TD has said.
Labour's Enterprise Spokesperson George Lawlor called for the move in response to the deepening global crisis, saying the EU and Ireland must stand up to the US president.
Speaking to reporters at Leinster House, Deputy Lawlor said the EU is "facing an act of aggression" from Mr Trump and that if the US president "goes ahead" with his Greenland threat, Ireland and the EU should "not facilitate" the US military.
Deputy Lawlor separately said he believes Mr Trump has "no integrity" and that the EU needs to look at what options it has to hit back, noting Europe "holds €8 trillion in US debt", and arguing the US president is causing crises globally while avoiding talking about the Epstein files domestically.
Meanwhile, Social Democrats senator and the party's foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson has said the EU and Ireland must push back against Mr Trump, saying "he simply does not respect weakness".
Senator Stephenson said the EU has a number of options open to it, including unfreezing €93bn worth of reciprocal tariffs against the US, the anti-coercion instrument and other matters.
She said, "the EU needs to be very clear to the US people", rather than just to Donald Trump, that the EU will use these options if it needs to do so, but declined to say the EU should introduce its own deadline for Donald Trump to back down to show it is willing to act.
White House visit
Both Deputy Lawlor and Senator Stephenson were also asked about whether Taoiseach Micheál Martin should still travel to the White House for the annual St Patrick's Day visit if he is asked, given the international crisis.
Asked if the Taoiseach should turn down any invite if it is made, Deputy Lawlor said "absolutely, it's a no brainer" unless the current difficulties are fully resolved.
Senator Stephenson separately said the potential visit is "two months away" and that if the Taoiseach does travel to the White House it "can't be a photo-op", which she said effectively took place last year when she said Mr Martin sat beside Mr Trump and said nothing while the US president belittled the EU.
