Limerick TD suggests US arms could present threat to Shannon Airport

A US Hercules Transporter at Shannon Airport in 2003. Picture: AP /John Cogill

Concerns have been raised by a Limerick TD about possible international threats to Shannon Airport, after arms were transported through the airport on 285 occasions in 2020.

In a Dáil debate this week, Limerick TD Richard O’Donoghue asked Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney whether he had contacted the Biden administration about the continued use of Shannon Airport for transiting US troops and their equipment.

Mr Coveney explained the process in place around the granting of such permission includes seeking advice on any implications for Ireland's policy of military neutrality. 

“With regard to foreign military aircraft, permission must be sought from me in advance for landings,” he explained. 

Strict conditions

Mr Coveney said such flights are routinely required to meet strict conditions, including that the aircraft is unarmed, carries no arms, ammunition or explosives, must not engage in intelligence gathering and does not form part of any military operation or exercise.

Mr Coveney said exemptions are not about “carrying large volumes of munitions or arms through Shannon Airport” but rather, they refer to “light arms” such as those carried by security personnel.

In response to this, Mr O’Donoghue said: "Munitions of war is a fancy term thought up by civil servants.” 

Why is neutral Ireland facilitating weapons of war going through Shannon Airport from the United States of America?” 

Mr Coveney said in order for a civilian aircraft carrying US military personnel who are carrying arms on their person to travel through Shannon Airport, there needs to be an exemption for that.

“This is different from using Shannon Airport as a stopover to carry munitions or arms to a theatre of war. That does not happen,” Mr Coveney said.

Large number of weapons

In response, Mr O'Donoghue said flights with military personnel on board would also have their own military weapons on board, implying a large number of weapons. He then asked if there had there been “any recent review of any possible international threat to Shannon Airport by those who may be enemies of the USA”. 

"We currently have Defence Forces troops in the Sahel region of Africa where there is a serious ongoing conflict,” he added, asking if the minister would offer sincere guarantees on the safety of these personnel.

To this, Mr Coveney said there are no large-scale stocks of weapons travelling through Shannon Airport. He did not respond to Mr O'Donoghue's concerns about a possible threat to the airport.  

He added that the Irish troops in the Sahel region “are trained and equipped, and that they are not put into a theatre of conflict where the risk profile has not been fully examined first”.