Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 January 2017
711. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of military aircraft that landed at airports other than Shannon Airport, with a breakdown based on the airport at which they landed and their country of origin. [1954/17]
View answerDuring 2016, my Department received 101 requests for landings by military aircraft at airports other than Shannon Airport from 17 countries. The details are set out in the following table:
|
Countries |
Casement Aerodrome |
Cork Airport |
Dublin Airport |
Knock Airport |
Sligo Airport |
Waterford Airport |
|
Bahrain |
2 |
|||||
|
Belgium |
1 |
|||||
|
Canada |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Cyprus |
1 |
|||||
|
Czech Republic |
1 |
|||||
|
France |
6 |
17 |
1 |
1 |
||
|
Germany |
3 |
|||||
|
Italy |
14 |
1 |
||||
|
Jordan |
1 |
|||||
|
Malta |
1 |
|||||
|
Monaco |
1 |
|||||
|
Netherlands |
1 |
|||||
|
Poland |
1 |
|||||
|
Switzerland |
1 |
|||||
|
Turkey |
2 |
|||||
|
United Kingdom |
16 |
4 |
||||
|
United States |
2 |
13 |
7 |
|||
|
Total |
33 |
8 |
50 |
7 |
1 |
1 |
In addition to the above requests, my Department also received one military aircraft landing request from the British Embassy in connection with a VIP visit at Donegal Four Masters GAA grounds during May 2016.
Arrangements under which permission is granted for foreign military aircraft to land at Irish airports are governed by strict conditions. These include stipulations that the aircraft must be unarmed, carry no arms, ammunition or explosives and must not engage in intelligence gathering, and that the flights in question must not form part of military exercises or operations.
