THE GOVERNMENT DOESNT KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON AT SHANNON WARPORT Shannonwatch Reports: It would appear that neither the Shannon Airport Authority OR the government know or keep proper records of what US military aircraft land at Shannon. On four occasions the Minister for Foreign Affairs denied in the Dail that an aircraft we knew was there had landed. Then he discovered that we had proof - so heres what he said this evening in the Dail. Thanks to Clare Daly for continuing to demand the truth from him on this. Arising from new information which has been brought to my attention, I would like to correct the record of the House in respect of an error in responses to four parliamentary questions from Deputy Clare Daly starting on 7 October 2014 and finishing with Question No. 110 on 20 November 2014. I replied to the questions on the basis of the information provided by Shannon Airport Authority. Shannon Airport Authority has now informed my Department that it has identified an error in its recording of the registration of this aircraft and has provided confirmation of the details of the aircraft in question. I can confirm to the House that the aircraft identified by Deputy Clare Daly in the four parliamentary questions was in fact granted permission to land at Shannon Airport on 30 September this year. The permission to land was granted subject to the strict conditions which apply to foreign military aircraft, including stipulations that the aircraft must be unarmed, carry no arms, ammunition or explosives and must not engage in intelligence gathering and that the flights in question must not form part of military exercises or operations. I apologise to the House for this error. The Shannon Airport Authority has apologised to me for this administrative error and has assured me that additional control measures have been put in place to avoid any recurrence. This raises very serious questions about the oversight of military planes through Shannon. Not only do the authorities not inspect them - they dont even know whats landing. On the basis of this, and the previous “administrative error” regarding a plane with a 30mm cannon out the side, we must demand an immediate and full investigation into what military planes have been landed at Shannon and what they were carrying. Transcript of the Dail statement is here: oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail2014120200029?opendocument#BB04600
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:43:27 +0000
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