Irish government subsidises U.S. military flights

May 14th, 2005 | by aobaoill |

I’ve written before, but seemingly not for some time, about U.S. military aircraft landing at Shannon airport in Ireland. Apart from Ireland’s consequent complicity in the war on Iraq (and elsewhere) the plane being used for ‘extraordinary renditions’ has also landed in Shannon.
A more general issue is that of military overflights in Irish airspace. Because of our geographic location the Irish air traffic control agency has responsibility also for a large section of he North Atlantic. A statement from Labour Party transport spokesperson Roisin Shortall, resulting from a parliamentary question she asked, reveals that last year the Irish government spent over three and a half million euro subsidising such flights. Seemingly the Irish government pays the charges owed by such flights – including U.S. flights. The full statement, with details of the number of flights and cost over the years, is detailed below the break but this excerpt from the Minister’s response bears highlighting:

From information received from Eurocontrol it is understood that Austria, Finland, Switzerland and Moldova do not at present grant exempted status to US military flights. However, my Department understands that invoices issued by the above States to the US authorities in respect of military flights have not been paid.


STATEMENT BY ROISIN SHORTALL TD
Spokesperson on Transport
Friday, 13 May, 2005
IRISH TAXPAYERS PAY €10M FOR COSTS OF FOREIGN MILITARY OVERFLIGHTS
The Labour Party Spokesperson on Transport, Deputy Roisin Shortall, has called for a review of the arrangement whereby the Department of Transport pays flight charges in respect foreign military aircraft passing through Irish controlled airspace. Deputy Shortall said that new figures she had obtained in reply to a parliamentary question to the Minister for Transport revealed that these charges had amounted to almost €10m over the past five years.
“The question of military aircraft using Irish airspace has always been a subject of controversy, but I believe that the public will be shocked and surprised to find that the Irish taxpayer is actually paying for the ‘privilege’ of allowing these aircraft to fly though Irish airspace. In my question I asked the Minister for a breakdown of the nationality of the aircraft involved. He was unable to give this information, but it is almost certain that the overwhelming majority of these aircraft were U.S. military flights. This is all the more likely given that, in an reply to a separate question, the Minister told me that the number of troops passing through Shannon in the first four months of this year amounted to 110,766, more than double the 47,149 for the same period in 2004.
“In his reply, Minister Brennan confirmed to me that military flights were effectively exempted from en-route charges and that his Department actually reimburses the Irish Aviation Authority for the charges that are lost as a result of this exemption. The amount paid by his Department to the Authority has shown a threefold increase since 2000 and the full figures in respect of each of the past five years were as follows:

2000 €1,139,283
2001 €1,377,560
2002 €1,642,541
2003 €2,148,374
2004 €3,687,933

“In his reply the Minister says that the decision to exempt military aircraft from charges is based on a Eurocontrol (European Organisation for the safety of Air Navigation) Multilateral Agreement to which Ireland is a party. However, Ireland is clearly a significant loser here as very few Irish military flights over-fly other countries, but our position on the edge of Europe means that many foreign military flights go through Irish controlled airspace.”
“A number of other neutral counties, including Austria, Finland and Switzerland do not grant exempted status to U.S. military flights. Surely it is time for Ireland to consider adopting a similar policy. It is bad enough that we should be allowing U.S. military flights to use or airspace and to land at Shannon, but it is surely totally unacceptable that the Irish taxpayer should be having to foot the bill for these flights.
ENDS
CONTACT ROISIN SHORTALL @ 087-2333580
http://www.labour.ie/press/
Dáil Question No: 32
*To ask the Minister for Transport the total amount paid by his Department to the Irish Aviation Authority in respect of charges due for foreign military aircraft passing through Irish airspace in respect of each of the past five years; the unit cost in respect of each such aircraft; the breakdown of the nationality of the aircraft in respect of which such charges were paid; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
For ORAL answer on Thursday, 12th May, 2005.

Answered by Minister for Transport (Martin Cullen)
Reply

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) provides air traffic control and communications services to aircraft which pass through Irish controlled airspace (en-route) and aircraft landing and taking off from Irish Airports (terminal). Only a small proportion of military flights through Irish administered airspace actually pass through Irish sovereign airspace. Irish administered airspace covers 450,000 square kilometres of which 83,000 square kilometres is sovereign airspace.
Under a Eurocontrol (European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation) Multilateral agreement to which Ireland is a party, various categories of flights (Flights under Visual Flight Rules, flights performed by small aircraft, flights performed for the transport of Heads of State and search and rescue flights) are exempt from paying en-route charges. In the case of other categories (military flights, training flights, flights performed to test air navigation equipment and circular flights), States have the option to exempt such flights from payment of the en-route charge. In common with most Eurocontrol Member States, Ireland exempts all such flights, including military flights of Member States of Eurocontrol, United States and Canada, from payment of the en-route charge and this arrangement has applied since Ireland joined the Eurocontrol en-route charging scheme in the early 1970’s. Because of this arrangement the IAA costs in relation to military flights are met from my Department’s vote.
From information received from Eurocontrol it is understood that Austria, Finland, Switzerland and Moldova do not at present grant exempted status to US military flights. However, my Department understands that invoices issued by the above States to the US authorities in respect of military flights have not been paid.
Ireland also exempts military aircraft flights from payment of the communications charge (a set amount per contact) and the IAA costs in relation to those charges are also met from my Department’s vote. Efforts to collect this charge in the early 1990’s were unsuccessful and, following advice from the Attorney General, debts then outstanding were written off with the agreement of the Department of Finance and a decision taken to cease charging the communications fee to military aircraft.
The total amounts (not including VAT) paid to the Authority in the years 2000 to 2004 in relation to exempted flights other than flights under Visual Flight Rules are as follows:

2000 €1,139,283
2001 €1,377,560
2002 €1,642,541
2003 €2,148,374
2004 €3,687,933

It should be noted that payments are made to the IAA in respect of exempted flights on a monthly basis in arrears and are subject to reconciliation in the following year. Therefore, the amounts paid to the IAA in any one year should not be taken as a definitive guide to the actual number of exempted flights that took place in that year.
En-Route charges are dependent on various factors such as size and weight (this provides the number of Service Units), which is then multiplied by the Unit Rate. The Unit Rate is a rate set in respect of each Member State by Eurocontrol and is related to the total costs of the IAA in providing air traffic control services as well as aviation-related costs of the Department and the Meteorological Service.
The total number of en-route flights and total number of en-route service units for the years 2001 to 2004 as provided by Eurocontrol (figures are not available for 2000) are as follows:

2001 2002 2003 2004
No of Flights 6,801 8,639 12,457 9,850
No of Units 44,438 57,491 97,928 72,531

My Department is currently collating information received from Eurocontrol and the Irish Aviation Authority regarding the total number of exempted communication contacts, a breakdown of those contacts by nationality and a breakdown of the exempted en-route charge by nationality. I will revert to the Deputy on completion of this work.

  1. One Response to “Irish government subsidises U.S. military flights”

  2. By redjade on May 15, 2005 | Reply

    also read
    http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69811

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