Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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352. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the reason a military aircraft (details supplied) of the US was at Shannon Airport on 1 June 2016; and the implications for our neutrality. [15753/16]

Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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353. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if, and the details, permission was requested on occasions other than 1 June 2016 (details supplied) for a military aircraft of the US to land at Shannon Airport, County Clare. [15754/16]

Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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354. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if a military aircraft of the US (details supplied), which was present at Shannon Airport on 1 June 2016, sought permission to land and if he granted this permission. [15755/16]

Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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355. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the date permission was sought and the date on which he granted permission to a military aircraft of the US (details supplied) to land at Shannon Airport on 1 June 2016. [15756/16]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 352 to 355, inclusive, together.

My Department received a request dated 13 May 2016 in respect of an aircraft with the call sign to which the Deputy refers. The request sought permission to land at Shannon Airport on 31 May and to depart on 2 June 2016. The request stated that the aircraft was unarmed, carried no arms, ammunition or explosives and that it would not engage in intelligence gathering. It also stated that the flight did not form part of any military operation or exercises. The purpose of the landing was stated as crew rest.

On 16 May 2016 my Department granted clearance for the landing provided that the aircraft was unarmed and carried no arms, ammunition or explosives, would not engage in intelligence gathering and that the flight in question would not form part of military exercises or operations.

No other request for permission to land in respect of an aircraft operating with the registration number to which the Deputy refers has been received to date this year, nor was one received in 2015.

Ireland’s traditional policy of military neutrality is characterised by non-participation in military alliances. This commitment to this policy was reconfirmed last year in the Foreign Policy Review “The Global Island,” and in the White Paper on Defence.

Successive Governments have made landing facilities at Shannon Airport available to the United States for well over 50 years. Permission must be sought in advance for landings by all foreign military aircraft, including US aircraft, and if granted, is subject to the strict conditions which I have outlined.

These arrangements do not amount to any form of military alliance with the United States and are consistent with our policy of military neutrality.