Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The White Paper on Defence 2015 provides for the establishment of a new fixed cycle of defence reviews. These reviews will take the form of a White Paper update every three years and a strategic defence review every six years. The first White Paper update will commence in the third quarter of 2018, with the first strategic defence review commencing in early 2021. Our policy on neutrality has been confirmed in the White Paper.

The issues of overflights by foreign military aircraft and the use of Shannon by foreign military aircraft are the responsibility of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. Both my Department and the Defence Forces are informed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade when requests are received for foreign military overflights or landings. This information serves to alert the Defence Forces, in particular, to a potential request for support from An Garda Síochána in the case of a request for landing approval at Shannon.

As has been highlighted many times in the House, successive Governments have made overflight and landing facilities available at Shannon Airport to the United States for well over 50 years. These arrangements do not amount to any form of military alliance with the US and are governed by strict conditions, which are applied to ensure compatibility with our traditional policy of military neutrality.

The recent debate on the Private Members’ Thirty-Fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Neutrality) Bill 2016 clearly demonstrated that Ireland’s long-standing policy of military neutrality is sufficiently safeguarded through existing constitutional provisions, through the protocol in the Lisbon treaty, through the Defence Acts and through long-term policy strategies adopted by Government.

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