Aircraft spot checks under consideration to ensure weapons not flown through Ireland

TRANSPORT MINISTER DARRAGH O’Brien has confirmed his department is reviewing what additional checks the state can carry out to ensure that no weapons destined for Israel are flown through Ireland. 

Speaking to The Journal, the minister said the review being carried out by his department regarding weapons being flown through Irish airspace and Irish airports is nearing conclusion. 

“What I would say this is that I’ve been informed, and it is something I take very seriously, that no licenses have been granted for flying weapons from Ireland to Israel or over Irish airspace,” he said. 

The issue had been raised with Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Simon Harris previously, when People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy walked across the Dáil chamber to give Harris documents which he claimed proved thousands of tonnes of weapons are being flown through Irish airspace. 

During the debate on the matter the Tánaiste outlined that the existing legislation doesn’t provide for a system of random inspections.

However, he said at the time that he believed it would be “legitimate for government to consider whether to amend our own domestic legislation” to allow for such measures. 

The Department of Transport is carrying out “a robust examination” of the allegations, Harris said at the time. 

Asked about the review, the O’Brien told The Journal this week that it is underway, but provided no timeline for when it will conclude. 

Any allegations of ‘munitions of war’ being flown through Irish airspace or airports is taken “very seriously”, he said. 

“Where someone brings forward an allegation that weapons or components of have been flown through an Irish airport or airspace or landed in Ireland by an international carrier, they are investigated,” said O’Brien. 

The minister said lots of aircrafts are registered in Ireland, though they don’t necessarily fly through Irish airspace. “So I think we have to be cognisant of what we’re able to do,” he said.

“There are other things that we can actually do,” he said, stating that his department is assessing if there are “certain checks” that can be carried out to assure the state that no munitions are coming through Ireland. 

“They’re the type things we’re looking at,” he said.

It is understood that random inspections of aircraft suspected of carrying weapons or parts could see agents boarding US aircraft stopped in Shannon, for example, and searching the planes to see if there are any undeclared munitions on board.

O’Brien ruled out the possibility of grounding flights that fly through Irish airspace with weapons, stating that if a plane is flying from one international city to another continent  through Irish airspace it is “not realistic” that the Irish state could force the grounding of the aircraft.

International carriers are “well aware of their obligations with regard to the laws that already exist in Ireland and their legal obligations”, O’Brien said.