Shannon Airport Facilities

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 October 2015

Thursday, 8 October 2015

Ceisteanna (3)

Clare Daly

Ceist:

3. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Defence if he is satisfied with existing arrangements between his Department and the Department of Justice and Equality and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade regarding the presence of foreign military aircraft on Irish territory; if he has had discussions with these Departments to recommend a more active role for Defence Forces personnel in relation to protecting our neutrality; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34754/15]

Freagraí ó Béal (6 píosaí cainte)

Deputy Clare Daly

Is the Minister happy with the arrangements between his Department and the Departments of Justice and Equality, Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Transport, Tourism and Sport with regard to the many foreign military aircraft that regularly land on Irish territory and indeed overfly with serious weaponry and troops? Could the Defence Forces be more active in respect of our neutrality?

Deputy Simon Coveney

This is an issue we debate regularly in this House and that is fine. In accordance with the Air Navigation (Foreign Military Aircraft) Order 1952, primary responsibility for the regulation of activity by foreign military aircraft in Ireland rests with my colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. Pursuant to this legislation, permission is required for foreign military aircraft to overfly Ireland or to land at Irish airports. The arrangements that are in place for seeking such permission are a matter for the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, but I understand that these include a provision that such requests must be submitted to his Department by the embassy of the country in question. Primary responsibility for the internal security of the State rests with the Department of Justice and Equality and An Garda Síochána. There is ongoing and close liaison between my Department and the Department of Justice and Equality and between An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces regarding security matters, including aid to the civil power, ATCP, deployments. One of the roles assigned to the Defence Forces is the provision of ATCP which, in practice, means to assist An Garda Síochána when requested to do so. This role was affirmed by the Government in the recently published new White Paper on Defence.

In the development of the new White Paper, discussions were held with a range of other Departments and agencies on significant cross-cutting policy issues. This process of consultation did not result in any impetus to make changes to the arrangements that have been in place since 2003 when the Defence Forces were first deployed to Shannon Airport at the request of An Garda Síochána.

In relation to recommending a more active role for the Defence Forces in protecting our neutrality, I wish to stress that the use of Shannon Airport by foreign military aircraft is not incompatible with our neutrality. Successive Governments have made overflight and landing facilities available at Shannon Airport for well over 50 years and this is fully consistent with Ireland’s obligations under successive resolutions of the UN Security Council. I am satisfied with the existing arrangements in place and I have no plans to recommend a more active role for the Defence Forces.

Deputy Clare Daly

As the Minister said, we have discussed this before and will certainly discuss it again. We particularly tabled it this time against the backdrop of information released under freedom of information requests to the Minister’s colleagues in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, which revealed that last year 272 flights received permits to take weapons or explosives through Shannon Airport, that the majority of flights were taking US troops between military bases and locations in the Middle East and that routinely US troop carriers and aircraft with machine guns, rocket mortars and other war matériel, is transited and flown over our air space. We ask this question because Defence Forces personnel are called out to Shannon to protect some of those aircraft almost daily. Against the backdrop of US involvement in the bombing of the hospital in Kunduz, can the Minister assure us that aircraft was not transited through Shannon?

Deputy Simon Coveney

I need to repeat again that I am not the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Deputy should address the policy questions on the use of Shannon Airport to him. The job of the Minister for Defence, the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces is to assist An Garda Síochána when it asks for help. That is what we do in respect of Shannon. It is unfortunate that there is deemed to be a security risk for planes that land in, and take off from, Shannon but when An Garda Síochána requests assistance, it gets it. The broader foreign policy questions the Deputy seems to be raising need to be addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Deputy Clare Daly

The Minister is a member of the Cabinet and has opinions and is touted as a future leader of Fine Gael but he cannot hide behind his Department in this matter. The fact that four Departments are involved has been used as a ploy by the Irish State not to give the correct information. It is a bizarre arrangement that military aircraft are allowed to transit on the myth that they are somehow unarmed and not involved in military exercises but civilian aircraft take in the guns and soldiers behind. How the Minister can brazenly say that does not affect our neutrality is beyond belief.

In September 2013, a US carrier, an AC-130W, very similar to the one that carried out the bombing of Kunduz hospital, landed and refuelled at Shannon. It is, I think, the one that forgot to take in the cannon on the wings. Does the Minister think it is acceptable that his personnel would potentially be there to guard such an aircraft which was ultimately involved in a war crime?

Deputy Simon Coveney

Of course I have views and the bombing at Kunduz was a tragedy that should not have happened, but I am Minister for Defence and the role of the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces in Shannon Airport is very clear, just as the role of the Department of Justice and Equality on security issues is clear. Within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the policy decisions are clear. In the context of a foreign affairs policy decision and our decision to remain militarily non-aligned and a neutral country, that policy has been confirmed in the White Paper on Defence, just as it was confirmed in the foreign policy paper produced by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan. If we felt that what happens in Shannon Airport undermined that policy we would have to deal with that, but we do not.