Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 32: To ask the Minister for Transport the total amount paid by his Department to the Irish Aviation Authority in respect of charges due for foreign military aircraft passing through Irish airspace in respect of each of the past five years; the unit cost in respect of each such aircraft; the breakdown of the nationality of the aircraft in respect of which such charges were paid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15581/05]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The Irish Aviation Authority, IAA, provides air traffic control and communications services to aircraft which pass through Irish controlled airspace —en-route— and aircraft landing and taking off from Irish airports — terminal. Only a small proportion of military flights through Irish administered airspace actually pass through Irish sovereign airspace. Irish administered airspace covers 450,000 square kilometres of which 83,000 square kilometres is sovereign airspace.

Under a Eurocontrol, European organisation for the safety of air navigation, multilateral agreement to which Ireland is a party, various categories of flights — flights under visual flight rules, flights performed by small aircraft, flights performed for the transport of Heads of State and search and rescue flights — are exempt from paying en-route charges. In the case of other categories — military flights, training flights, flights performed to test air navigation equipment and circular flights — states have the option to exempt such flights from payment of the en-route charge. In common with most Eurocontrol member states, Ireland exempts all such flights, including military flights of member states of Eurocontrol, United States and Canada, from payment of the en-route charge and this arrangement has applied since Ireland joined the Eurocontrol en-route charging scheme in the early 1970's. Because of this arrangement the IAA costs in relation to military flights are met from my Department's Vote.

From information received from Eurocontrol it is understood that Austria, Finland, Switzerland and Moldova do not currently grant exempted status to US military flights. However, my Department understands that invoices issued by the above states to the US authorities in respect of military flights have not been paid.

Ireland also exempts military aircraft flights from payment of the communications charge — a set amount per contact — and the IAA costs in relation to those charges are also met from my Department's Vote. Efforts to collect this charge in the early 1990's were unsuccessful and, following advice from the Attorney General, debts then outstanding were written off with the agreement of the Department of Finance and a decision taken to cease charging the communications fee to military aircraft.

The total amounts, not including VAT, paid to the authority in the years 2000 to 2004 in relation to exempted flights other than flights under visual flight rules are as follows: 2000, €1,139,283; 2001, €1,377,560; 2002, €1,642,541; 2003, €2,148,374; and 2004, €3,687,933.

It should be noted that payments are made to the IAA in respect of exempted flights on a monthly basis in arrears and are subject to reconciliation in the following year. Therefore, the amounts paid to the IAA in any one year should not be taken as a definitive guide to the actual number of exempted flights that took place in that year.

En-route charges are dependent on various factors such as size and weight — this provides the number of service units — which is then multiplied by the unit rate. The unit rate is a rate set in respect of each member state by Eurocontrol and is related to the total costs of the IAA in providing air traffic control services as well as aviation-related costs of the Department and the Meteorological Service.

The total number of en-route flights and total number of en-route service units for the years 2001 to 2004 as provided by Eurocontrol — figures are not available for 2000 — are as follows:

My Department is currently collating information received from Eurocontrol and the Irish Aviation Authority regarding the total number of exempted communication contacts, a breakdown of those contacts by nationality and a breakdown of the exempted en-route charge by nationality. I will revert to the Deputy on completion of this work.