Vol. 449 No. 6
23 Mr. Callely asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the total number of requests for foreign military aircraft to land in the country in 1994; the number of permissions granted; the type of cargo carried; the inspections, if any, carried out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4120/95]
Under the Air Navigation (Foreign Military Aircraft) Order 1952, foreign military aircraft require the permission of the Minister for Foreign Affairs to land in the State. Permission is granted subject to acceptance by the requesting Government that certain conditions be met, the most important of which are that the relevant aircraft are unarmed, carry no arms, ammunition or explosives and do not engage in intelligence gathering and that the flights in question do not form part of military exercises or operations.
An application for permission to land is made by the Embassy of the applicant country accredited to Ireland. The application procedure involves the provision of detailed technical information with regard to aircraft specification, crew, cargo and flight plan. Each application is examined and cleared by the technical Departments concerned before permission is granted.
Under these procedures a total of 333 requests for permission for foreign military aircraft to land in the State were received in 1994. All requests conformed to the requirements I have outlined and permission was granted in each case. It would not be in accordance with established practice to give details of checks that might be undertaken.
