Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I have raised the issue of airport smuggling checks on several occasions, as have certain party colleagues. As the Minister of State has pointed out, customs regulation is ultimately a function of the Department of Finance and the Revenue Commissioners. I call for the introduction of permanent customs and security checks at Weston Executive Airport and all the other small airports around the country following yesterday's seizure of drugs from a passenger and the arrest of the pilot and co-pilot on a flight to Belgium that originated there.

Small airports dotted around the country unsurprisingly offer great opportunities for smuggling drugs, goods and even people into Ireland and the EU. I congratulate gardaí on the success of their operation in co-operation with Belgian police. They intercepted a massive quantity of heroin that would otherwise have made it onto the streets of Ireland, Britain or mainland Europe and brought misery to people's lives.

However, that two Irishmen were arrested and that the flight originated at a private Irish airport, that an Irish plane was used, and that no security was in place suggests that our small airports risk being used as staging-posts in the international drugs trade. Criminals are clearly able to charter private aircraft and proceed to rendezvous points either in this country or abroad without the authorities knowing of their cargo or the purpose of their journey. That is extraordinary, and the Government must move quickly to address that anomaly, particularly as we all know that in Celtic tiger Ireland there has been massive growth in the ownership of private aeroplanes and helicopters.

Moreover, it is staggering that private individuals can lease their aircraft or allow them to be used by others, as was the suggestion yesterday regarding Mr. Mansfield, the owner of the plane. I understand his company also owns Weston Aerodrome. He appears to have been completely in the dark regarding what the aeroplane was being used for. There must clearly be a wholesale review of security arrangements, and especially customs arrangements, at every airport in the country. We cannot have Ireland as a drop-off point or staging-post for the international drugs trade.

Weston's location in west Dublin and the severe problems of gang and drug violence on the entire west side of the city, of which I know the Minister of State is acutely aware, make it a particularly vulnerable target. If one adds to that the absolute lack of community policing there and the intelligence that such policing would provide, one sees that we are very vulnerable. We want the kind of surveillance at those small airports that one has nowadays in Dublin Airport. Statistics on seizures there show that the use of sniffer dogs and more up-to-date technology to track flights and so on will, over a period, produce results.

We clearly now have an unlocked door at small airports regarding smuggling and the international drugs trade. We saw in the Ryder Cup the massive use of private helicopters and aircraft in and out of Weston and similar locations on the west side of Dublin. Thankfully, what happened this time has ended with some success for the policing authority. However, a plan must be put in place immediately, and we clearly require the co-operation not only of the customs authorities and the Minister for Finance but of the Garda and policing authorities.

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