Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The safety of our skies and the control of our airspace involve a number of things. There are aspects that relate to defence and national security, whether it is incursions by foreign aircraft or the possibility of a hijacking happening over our airspace. Mainly, however, it is a matter of civil aviation and air safety in the way the Deputy explained very eloquently. What are we doing? We are developing our Air Corps. On foot of the recommendations of the Commission on the Defence Forces, we are going to build up our Air Corps and radar capability so that we have an air force but it will be a small air force, appropriate for a country of 5 million people. Even then, not just on an interim basis but long term, we will need to have arrangements and co-operation with our neighbours and also our partners in the European Union, particularly through permanent structured co-operation, PESCO and, in NATO, through the Partnership for Peace. There is nothing strange about those arrangements. They are entirely appropriate.

On the Air Corps, we have a programme for the supply of two C295 maritime patrol aircraft at a cost of €230 million. They will be delivered this year. A contract has recently been awarded for a C295W fixed-wing military transport aircraft at a cost of €70 million. I do not have a date for its arrival. We also have four relatively new PC12 aircraft that are equipped for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance, ISTAR. These were only acquired in 2020. In total, about €350 million has been committed to improve our Air Corps capability, which is significant. In addition, AirNav Ireland, which was formally part of the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA, exercises air traffic control responsibilities for our airspace, comprising both our sovereign airspace but also airspace over the high seas over our western sea board. However, on a routine basis, the Air Corps monitors and communicates with foreign military aircraft where such aircraft are flying in the airspace in the vicinity of Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel, where air traffic control is provided by the Defence Forces. The eight-strong fleet of Pilatus PC9 aircraft currently operated by the Air Corps provides a limited air-to-air and air-to-ground intercept capacity.

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