Russian military exercises off Irish coast 'absolutely routine'
The Russian navy's missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov. Plans by Russia to hold military exercises off the Irish coast were 'absolutely routine', Irish aviation officials have said. Picture: Russian Defence Ministry Press Service via AP
Plans by Russia to hold military exercises off the Irish coast were "absolutely routine", Irish aviation officials have said.
The Oireachtas transport committee heard from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) after Russia agreed to move planned military drills off the south-west coast.
On Saturday, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney had confirmed that he received assurances from his Russian counterpart that the drills would not take place in Ireland's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The artillery drills were to take place at the start of February in international waters, albeit in Irish-controlled airspace and the country's EEZ.
The planned exercises caused controversy and sparked protests by fishermen outside the Russian Embassy in Dublin.
Appearing before the committee, IAA chief executive Peter Kearney told politicians: "Although the Russian Federation has indicated that planned exercise would be moved and so the original airspace restrictions have been cancelled, we need to remain alert that the exercises could take place at a new location, outside of our area of responsibility but in an area that could impact our operation."
However, he also said that the planned Russian activity, although the first of its kind in living memory, was "routine".
"With what has been seen in Ukraine and Russia and the sensitivities around that, I can understand how people would be very concerned.
"From our point of view, this is absolutely routine. There's nothing unusual at all about this. This didn't generate any surprise or additional level of alertness within our organisation. We simply applied the procedures that we've operated for many years."
In a lengthy opening statement, Mr Kearney told the committee he wanted to "stress that, while not commonplace, military exercises do occur from time to time in international waters and airspace".
He said there were "agreed international procedures in place for the safe management of civilian aircraft while such exercises take place".
Russia followed the correct process to alert officials to the exercise, he said.
He talked politicians through how such exercises are notified and how the IAA operated amid the recent controversy.
He said Russia notified British authorities regarding the drills on January 19. British authorities then contacted Ireland.
On January 27, British authorities published a notice to inform airlines that a portion of airspace would be closed as a result of the planned exercise.
"The practical outcome of these steps is that the area of airspace where the exercise was to take place had been closed to civil aircraft for the required period between February 3 to 8.
"To further protect civil aviation, we had also put in additional buffers to widen the restricted area, beyond that which had been notified by the Russian authorities, and had increased the restricted altitude to unlimited, meaning no civilian aircraft could fly into or over the restricted area.
"We also widened the time of the closures to ensure that all aircraft would have exited the area well in advance of the naval exercise commencing."
Mr Kearney said that all of the steps were put in place to "ensure the safety of the operation of civilian aircraft".
"The safety of operations within Irish air traffic control airspace would not have been impacted, as all civilian aircraft would be routed away from the relevant area," he said.
With the Russian exercise now moved elsewhere, aircraft are free to flight plan through the area that was to have been restricted, he added.
