Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 245: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs when and the person by whom a decision was made to change long-standing criteria whereby permissions for foreign military overflights or landings in the State were conditional on an aircraft being unarmed, not carrying arms, ammunition or explosives, and not being an integral part of training manoeuvres by foreign military aircraft, or in the case of troop-carrying aircraft, not being [i]en route[/i] to military exercises, operations or a theatre of war; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20152/05]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The Air Navigation (Foreign Military Aircraft) Order 1952 gives the Minister for Foreign Affairs discretion in the granting of permission to foreign military aircraft to overfly or land in the State. Permission is normally granted on conditions including that the foreign military aircraft is unarmed, and not carrying arms, ammunition or explosives. It should be noted that these conditions are policy stipulations applied at the discretion of successive Ministers and not legal requirements.

As regards overflights and landings of US military aircraft relating to the military campaign in Iraq, Dáil Éireann voted on 20 March 2003, following an extensive discussion of the issues involved, to support Government policy in this area. Furthermore, the United Nations Security Council has, since October 2003, adopted a number of resolutions asking members of the United Nations to give assistance to the multinational force in Iraq.

The regulation of matters relating to commercial air carriers carrying foreign military personnel is primarily a matter for the Department of Transport.