Public pays for foreign military use of airspace

TAXPAYERS are footing a bill of around 1 million a year for foreign military aircraft using Irish airspace.

The Government decision to exempt the airplanes from fees, which apply to commercial aircraft, has also raised further questions about Ireland’s neutrality.

Around 6,880 military aircraft passed through our airspace last year. Latest figures show this number is rising with around 10,000 expected this year. Figures supplied by the Department of Foreign Affairs also show there were 523 military landings here in the past 12 months.

Permission to use Irish airspace has been given to military aircraft from 30 countries including the US, China, Israel, Iran, Russia and the Palestinian Authority.

The Department of Transport defended the fee exemptions, arguing other European countries have similar arrangements which extend to small aircraft, search and rescue flights and test flights.

But Labour Transport spokesperson Roisín Shorthall yesterday called for the special treatment to be urgently reviewed. “I believe the public will be shocked to find our own Department of Transport actually pays for the charges lost as a result of the exemption of military aircraft from the normal charges paid by civil aircraft,” she said.

Green Party chairman John Gormley said it was further proof that our neutral status had become “a joke”.

In all there are at least two charges which are exempt from payment: a flyover fee and a communications charge.

But the Department of Transport says Ireland does the same as most other members of a European aviation agreement called Eurocontrol by not demanding a flyover charge. It says it also exempts military aircraft from paying a communication charge for legal reasons. Efforts to collect this charge in the early 1990s were unsuccessful and, following legal advice, debts then outstanding were written off.