Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 November 2004
176 Ms O. Mitchell asked the Minister for Transport the cost to date in 2004 of the payment to the Irish Aviation Authority in lieu of waived income from American aeroplanes involved in the Iraq war; and the estimated cost for 2005. [30701/04]
View answerThe Irish Aviation Authority, IAA, provides air traffic control and communications services to aircraft that pass through both sovereign and international airspace which it administers on the north Atlantic. Only a small proportion of military flights through Irish administered airspace actually pass through Irish sovereign airspace. Irish administered airspace covers 135,000 square miles of which 32,000 square miles is sovereign airspace.
Under a Eurocontrol, European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, multilateral agreement to which Ireland is a party, various categories of flights — flights under visual flight rules, flights performed by small aircraft, flights performed for the transport of Heads of State and search and rescue flights — are exempt from paying en-route charges. In the case of other categories — military flights, training flights, flights performed to test air navigation equipment and circular flights — states have the option to exempt such flights from payment of the en-route charge. In common with most Eurocontrol member states, Ireland exempts all such flights, including military flights of member states of Eurocontrol, the United States and Canada, from payment of the en-route charge and this arrangement has applied since Ireland joined the Eurocontrol en-route charging scheme in the early 1970s. Because of this arrangement the IAA costs in relation to military flights are met from my Department's Vote.
Ireland also exempts military aircraft flights from payment of the communications charge and the IAA costs for those charges are also met from my Department's Vote. Efforts to collect this charge in the early 1990s were unsuccessful and, following advice from the Attorney General, debts then outstanding were written off with the agreement of the Department of Finance and a decision taken to cease charging the communications fee to military aircraft.
A total of €2.13 million, excluding VAT, has been paid to the IAA between January and September 2004. US military flights account for approximately 90% of the total amounting to €1.92 million. It is estimated that a further €700,000, excluding VAT, will be paid to the IAA by the end of 2004 with US military flights accounting for €630,000 of that amount. The published Estimate for 2005 for all exempt services is €4 million, including VAT. While it is difficult to predict the expected number of exempt US military flights in 2005, an amount of €2.98 million, excluding VAT, has been estimated based on the outturn in recent years.
Foreign military aircraft using the State airports pay the appropriate airport charge to each airport authority.
