The purpose of this Bill, as the House is aware, is to provide the legal basis for the establishment of a customs-free airport at Shannon. The Bill is of rather a technical character, but the explanatory memorandum which was made available with it will have explained to Senators its main provisions. The establishment of a free airport at Shannon is a logical development of the aviation policy which has been followed since the decision was taken some ten years ago to build an airport at Shannon.
A main feature of the policy has been to provide there all the facilities which the international civil aviation organisation considers necessary at a main transatlantic airport. In accordance therewith we are building runways which will accommodate the largest aircraft in commercial operation, providing the most up-to-date navigational aids and putting up a terminal building which will be capable of accommodating all the traffic which the airport may handle.
We are now proposing to make Shannon the first customs-free airport in the world. The idea of a customs-free airport is new. I think it can be said to be an Irish idea. It was our representatives at international conferences who took the initiative of securing that the various international conventions for the regulation of civil aviation should be so framed as to permit of the operation of customs-free airports. The original convention, that which was signed at Paris about 25 years ago, contained no such provision; but when a conference was held at Chicago in 1944 for the purpose of framing a new convention, our representatives there took the opportunity to secure international recognition in principle for the establishment of a customs-free airport. At a number of meetings of the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organisation at Montreal, our representatives also took the initiative in defining the requirements for a customs-free airport, and participated in the work of a special division which was set up by that organisation to consider that matter and other measures for facilitating international air services.
Having secured international agreement for the concept and requirements of a customs-free airport, we proceeded to make specific plans for the Shannon and this Bill is designed to put those plans into action. It provides that goods and passengers in transit through Shannon Airport will not be subject to customs examination. Goods brought by aeroplane through Shannon will be free from all customs restrictions so long as they remain within the boundary of the free airport. There will be no customs officials within the airport, and compliance with any regulations that may still remain in force will be secured, not by officers of the Customs and Excise, but by officials of the Department of Industry and Commerce.
There will have to be some restrictions in force. As Senators know, the staff of the Revenue Commissioners enforce restrictions other than customs restrictions at airports, seaports and land frontiers, such as the restrictions which are designed to safeguard the public health and to prevent the spread of animal and plant diseases. There are also certain articles the importation of which is prohibited in pursuance of international conventions to which this State is a party. We must carry out our obligations under these conventions. There is, therefore, provision in the Bill for the making of regulations reimposing these safeguards and prohibitions at the free airport, as well as for continuing the present currency control so long as it may be necessary. The regulations to achieve that result will be made in consultation with the Ministers who are directly concerned, and compliance with the regulations at the airport will be enforced by officers of the Department of Industry and Commerce appointed for that purpose.
While the establishment of a free airport confers great benefits on air travellers and those sending goods by air, it also offers opportunities and temptations to those wishing to defraud the revenue. It is, therefore, necessary to provide for powers of search and these powers are provided in the Bill. One of the chief difficulties experienced in framing the Bill related to internal traffic passing through the airport and to visitors at the airport. It was not desired to impose customs examination on sightseers or on people travelling by air from Shannon to Collinstown. The problem has been met by setting aside as a customs area a portion of the terminal building and part of the landing field adjacent to it. There will therefore be, in a sense, two airports at Shannon, a customs airport and a free airport. Persons travelling by air from Dublin to Shannon airport will disembark in the customs area and will not have to undergo customs examination unless they wish to enter the free airport to join an aircraft for a foreign destination. Visitors coming to the airport as sightseers or to meet their friends arriving by air will be permitted to enter the customs area without examination. The accommodation in the customs area will include a lounge, a restaurant and an open space from which the operations can be seen. In order to prevent possible evasion of customs it will be necessary to segregate transit passengers from disembarking passengers and from local visitors. The confining of visitors and disembarking passengers to the customs area will achieve that purpose. It will, of course, be possible to make special arrangements for persons who have particular business in the free port area to pass from one section to another.
Passengers or goods entering or leaving Ireland via Shannon will pass through the customs as at present. As goods may be brought free of duty into the customs-free airport from abroad and stored there, it will be of advantage to commercial interests to set up depots at the airport from which delivery made be made by air to meet orders from any countries in Europe or North America which have direct communication with Shannon. To facilitate such a development, a suitable transit shed is being constructed at the free airport. It is hoped that some manufacturers may find it desirable to undertake within the free airport the packing, processing and rehandling of goods. Any development on these lines will be facilitated. Already there is a fair amount of freight passing through Shannon, although it is yet difficult to forecast the prospects of the carriage of freight by air.
Our aim is to be ready to cope with any developments that may occur. As I have said, Shannon Airport is equipped to take the largest aircraft at present engaged in freight service or that are likely to be engaged in the service in the immediate future. The developments which are contemplated there will ensure that it will be able to cater for any type of cargo aircraft that is likely to be employed on the transatlantic service.
This is a Bill that is, to some extent, experimental. There is no similar legislation in any other country and, consequently, we are submitting it to the Oireachtas in the clear knowledge that in the light of its experience some of its provisions may have to be modified. The problems which arose in the drafting of the Bill were not inconsiderable and they have been surmounted only because of the general desire to help it forward shown by all parties concerned. I should like particularly to say that all the airline companies operating through Shannon have been most helpful in working out a satisfactory scheme. When the Bill is passed, we shall have secured that air traffic passing through Shannon will be relieved of most of the restrictions which air travellers all over the world are desirous of having relaxed. It is, therefore, I think a very necessary step in the general policy of developing Shannon as a main transatlantic airport and for that reason I feel confident that the Oireachtas will pass the measure.