Ban war over flights and landings

IT is time for the Government to move from its position of ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ regarding renditions. The simple fact is that the Irish authorities demand little information regarding, and exercise little control over, what or who is transiting its territory, especially in foreign ‘civilian’ aircraft.

Exposés about foreign aircraft failing to seek stopover permission from the Government for carrying US military detainees, or Apache attack helicopters to Israel, show that Irish procedures for granting over flight or landing permission are wide open to abuse.

While foreign military aircraft require the permission of the foreign affairs minister to over fly or land in the State, the US renditions programme has relied on aircraft masquerading as ‘civilian’.