Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 310: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if there has been a change in policy on foreign military landings in Irish airports and overflights in Irish air space in the past three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23724/05]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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There has been no change in the criteria applied to the landing and overflights of foreign military aircraft. Policy in this area is based on the Air Navigation (Foreign Military Aircraft) Order 1952 which 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 certain conditions, such as that the aircraft is unarmed, is not carrying arms, ammunition or explosives, is not engaged in intelligence gathering and is not taking part in military exercises or operations. These conditions are not legal requirements but are policy stipulations that are applied at the discretion of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and that he can waive or vary at any time.

In this latter regard, the Government made a specific offer to waive these normal criteria in the case of aircraft acting in pursuit of UN Security Council Resolution 1368 adopted after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. However, no country sought to avail of this exemption. As regards overflights and landings of US military aircraft relating to the situation in Iraq, Dáil Éireann voted on 20 March 2003, following an extensive discussion of the issues surrounding the US invasion of Iraq, to support the Government's decision to allow US military aircraft to continue to overfly and land in Ireland. 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.