Mr. Niall Burgess:

Yes. Again, if I could distinguish between civilian aircraft and military aircraft, most military personnel who transit through Shannon Airport do so in chartered civilian aircraft. The Garda has powers to search civilian aircraft where it has strong reason to believe that a crime has been committed. To land at Shannon Airport, under the regulation, the carriage of all weapons is prohibited unless an exemption is sought. That exemption is only granted for the carriage of weapons if personal weapons are stored in the hold and are not accessible by the military personnel who are coming through. We received something like 700 requests for exemption at Shannon Airport last year, 85% of which related to the carriage of personal weapons. However, the US authorities were required to confirm beforehand that those personal weapons were out of access and were in the hold of the flight.