Results 3,921-3,940 of 9,158 for speaker:Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The committee is now sitting in its capacity as a joint sub-committee on petitions. We have had a chance to deliberate on petition No. 17/14, which was deferred from last week, regarding the incorrect allocations of public funds allocated for flood prevention in a specified area, from Mr. Eugene Mitchell. The petitioner's house flooded in 2009 and he is claiming that Galway County Council...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: We will now proceed to deal with the role of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in issuing diplomatic notes which allow foreign aircraft to enter Irish airspace and avail of landing facilities. I remind all present, including members, media and people in the Visitors Gallery that mobile telephones and blackberries must be turned off completely or switched to flight or safe mode as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I thank the Deputy. Is Mr. Burgess clear on the question?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: If there was a plane full of the US marines and every one of them was carrying a rifle and a standard issue pistol, would the authorities allow the plane to come through?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I am talking about a commercial plane that has been chartered by the US Government for the purposes of transporting US marines. Mr. Burgess is saying that if they were carrying rifles and pistols on the chartered plane, he would not give them an exemption or prior authorisation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: For argument's sake, if there were 200 US marines and 200 rifles and 200 pistols secured in a different hold, Mr. Burgess would allow the plane to go through.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Can Mr. Burgess provide us with statistics to clarify that issue? Some 15% are not the rifles or pistols that a soldier would be carrying as standard.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade makes a recommendation to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport about those matters because it is an exemption of prior approval that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade must recommend.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: We will do so.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I have some questions. In the correspondence sent to the committee - there was correspondence from the Minister but also from the Department - the Department specified that, in terms of the military aircraft, it has assurances that no weaponry would be carried on board when they land. That is the assurance. It is a matter of trust between states and on that basis, the Department would...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: It is correspondence dated 15 May 2014. Mr. Robert O'Driscoll, private secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, signed off on it. In that, the Department specifies the criteria around military aircraft, but I do not see any reference to the fact that the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport gives permission to considerable numbers of personnel who have weapons on board.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: We can dance around on this but the bottom line is we are advised that either the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or some Department of Government has given permission to 2.3 million US marines to come through Shannon Airport with their weapons stored away. Is that a fair point?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I will say a large number.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: You do not want to commit to the number but is it fair to say a huge number of US marines and members of the US army have come through Shannon Airport with the permission of the Government, with a side arm and rifle on board a plane?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: That is for huge numbers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: That is a fair point. It is just that in the correspondence to this committee it is not acknowledged. You speak about 50,000 in one year, 2013, but in terms of the scale over the period of time that would be a concern. Do you think the fact that two Departments and Government permit such a huge number of members of the US army, marines or whatever, to come through Shannon Airport on the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: How do you define military neutrality?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Would you regard the fact that we permit huge numbers of members of the US army on the way to the theatre of war to stop over and avail of our facilities as commensurate with what you would understand to be military alliances?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I have a final question. You said the process is that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade would be consulted on potential exemptions and prior approval and would make a recommendation to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. Does the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport advise you as to whether it accepted the recommendation?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (3 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: In terms of chartered flights going through the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, is it the responsibility of the company or the US State Department to make the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade aware of what is on board the plane? If an aeroplane is full of US service men and women, which it is acknowledged would be permitted to have side arms or rifles stored away, there is...