Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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403. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of permits granted for military aircraft to land at Shannon Airport; the number granted to fly through Irish airspace in each of the years 2002 to 2019; the breakdown by country in each case in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35234/20]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Permission for foreign military aircraft to overfly the State is subject to strict conditions. These routinely include stipulations that the aircraft must be unarmed, carry no arms, ammunition or explosives and must not engage in intelligence gathering, and that the flights in question must not form part of military exercises or operations. Overflights by US military aircraft are permitted without prior notification, where the aircraft are unarmed, carry only cargo and passengers and comply with navigational requirements.

The table at the link provides details of the overflights granted permission from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2019, along with details of the number of aircraft granted permission to land at Shannon airport in the same time period.

This data has been compiled by staff working remotely due to Covid-19 restrictions and it is limited to the most recent five full years, for which complete electronic records are available. Staff do not have the access to the physical files required to compile data for the earlier time range. I will be in direct contact with the Deputy with regard to the remainder of the data she has requested.

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