Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is important that we deal with facts here rather than what people believe. In order for a civilian aircraft that is carrying US military personnel to travel through Shannon Airport, if any of them are carrying arms on their person there needs to be an exemption for that. There is no exemption to carry large munitions or arms for military operations or war. There is not. The only exemptions here are for light arms that are carried on a person. If a senior US official comes through Shannon Airport on a military aircraft, he or she will have a personal security detail. There will be other cases where light arms are justified and carried, but this is different from using Shannon Airport as a stopover to carry munitions or arms to a theatre of war. That does not happen. I want to reassure people that this does not happen. It is certainly the information on the brief I have anyway. This is about light arms that are on a person where there is a justifiable reason for it. It is no more and no less than that. They are the exemptions that are considered by the Minister for Transport, in consultation with my Department. Those exemptions are given when appropriate.

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