Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 120: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of US military flights and US military personnel that passed through Shannon Airport during 2004; if he anticipates similar numbers of personnel and flights using Shannon in 2005; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2768/05]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The regulation of matters relating to commercial air carriers, including the statistics for passenger transit numbers, is primarily a matter for the Department of Transport, whose records indicate that the number of US troops transiting the airport in 2004 was 158,549.

Permission for foreign military aircraft to overfly, or land in, the State is granted by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, under the Air Navigation (Foreign Military Aircraft) Order 1952. Permission is normally granted on condition that the foreign military aircraft is unarmed, and not carrying arms, ammunition or explosives.

It is not the practice of the Government to release details of an individual country's military aircraft landings. The total number of such landings in 2004 was 753.

With regard to forecasts for 2005, it will be recalled that the use of Shannon Airport by the US military is a long-standing practice which has been in place for several decades.