Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 November 2004
323 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Transport if the decision to waive fees for the hundreds of US military flights that have used Shannon Airport has cost to Irish taxpayer nearly €6 million. [30309/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Irish Aviation Authority, IAA, provides air traffic control and communications services to aircraft which pass through sovereign and international airspace it administers on the north Atlantic. Only a small proportion of military flights through Irish administered airspace 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. This arrangement has applied since Ireland joined the Eurocontrol en route charging scheme in the early 1970s. For this reason, arrangement the IAA costs with regard 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 in relation to 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 €6.1 million, not including VAT, was paid to the IAA between January 2003 and September 2004. US military flights account for approximately 90% of the total amounting to €5.5 million. Foreign military aircraft using State airports pay the appropriate airport charge to each airport authority.
