Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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289. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport for the aircraft registration numbers of Irish-registered civil aircraft operating outside Ireland who were granted exemptions to permit the carriage of munitions of war from October 2023 to March 2025, in tabular form. [16698/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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From 2023 there has been a marked increase in exemptions granted to Irish-registered aircraft operating outside of Ireland. This increase is linked to the Scandinavian operations of the SAS Group, particularly SAS Connect, an Irish licenced airline. This subsidiary of the SAS Group operates a fleet of 30 aircraft, with bases in Copenhagen, London Heathrow, and Stockholm.

The expansion of its fleet and route network over the past two years has led to increased operations within Scandinavia and increased operations to international hubs. Its wider network and increased operations has led to an increase in the number of applications for exemptions for the carriage of "munitions of war" on board its aircraft.

Applications for exemptions include the weapons of armed personal protection officers for royalty, government leaders and ministers travelling on its services. The more routine and numerous applications are for armed law enforcement and military personnel. For example, Sweden hosts several police academies and military bases and the airline has seen an increasing number of such personnel commuting by air on its services, which has resulted in an increase in the number of exemption applications.