Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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324. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of permits granted for military aircraft to land at Shannon Airport and to pass through Irish airspace to date in 2020; the number of permits refused for military aircraft to land at Shannon Airport and to pass through Irish airspace to date in 2020; the countries the requests were made by; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40229/20]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Permission for foreign military aircraft to land in or 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 following tables detail the permissions granted to land at Shannon airport or overfly Irish sovereign airspace from 1 January to 31 October of this year. The number of those flights which were cancelled is also shown. In addition, permission for overflight was refused in one case where the aircraft in question did not meet our strict criteria.