Vol. 461 No. 1
71 Mr. Callely asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of requests and the number of approvals for permission for foreign military aircraft to land in this country in 1995; whether certain conditions are relaxed in relation to aircraft cargo on certain occasions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2437/96]
Permission is granted by the Minister for Foreign Affairs under the Air Navigation (Foreign Military Aircraft) Order, 1952, for foreign military aircraft to land in the State. Permission is granted subject to acceptance by the requesting government that certain conditions must 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.
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 342 requests for permission for foreign military aircraft to land in the State were received in 1995. All requests conformed to the requirements which I have outlined and permission was granted in each case.
