Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My question should never have been grouped with this one. It is actually different and I am not having the Minister of State hide behind a grouping of questions. My question is whether there has been any alteration in aid to the civil power duties in Shannon this year. I ask because €200,000 of the defence budget was spent to carry out these duties at Shannon 385 times last year.

Has that changed? The reason I am asking is because there have been some very peculiar developments at Shannon Airport, where civilian aircraft are landing and overflying our airspace with civilian registration, and then leaving and changing those call signs to military signs which means that the State would or should have a role in that regard.

For example, the Atlas Air B767 chartered to the US military overflew Ireland yesterday morning, coming from Carolina and using a civilian flight code. It then changed it after it left Irish airspace 20 minutes later to a military one. It travelled to Turkey to a base that is being used for bombings in Syria. Have there been any changes in aid to civil power duties and, if not, why not?

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