Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 13: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of troops to pass through Shannon Airport in 2005 dressed in army uniform. [33473/05]

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 14: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of US troops that have been present in Shannon Airport dressed in military uniform each month for the past six years. [33476/05]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 14 together.

The wearing of foreign military uniforms in the State is governed by section 317 of the Defence Act 1954. The provisions of this section prohibit the wearing of a foreign military uniform without ministerial permission.

In accordance with the requirements of the Defence Act 1954, express permission was granted by the then Minister for Foreign Affairs in January 2003 to the US authorities for their military personnel to wear their uniforms in the transit areas of Irish airports. It was stipulated in an exchange of diplomatic notes with the US Embassy that, where it was sought to wear uniforms outside of the transit area, a further request would be required.

The following table outlines the numbers of US troops passing through Shannon Airport during the period covered by the Deputies' requests, which has been prepared on the basis of available information. Currently, monthly breakdowns are only available from the year 2002 onwards, and owing to difficulties in accessing earlier records in the time available, it was not possible to extract figures for the year 2000. Up until the end of October, there has been a total of 268,963 US troop movements through Shannon this year.

Once the permission of the Minister for Foreign Affairs has been obtained, it is a matter for the US authorities whether their troops actually wear uniform when transiting through Shannon Airport. However, I understand that on flights transiting through Shannon, US military personnel usually wear their uniform.