Gentlemen,
Contrary to claims made by the Minister of Transport Eamon Ryan, it has been proven that at least nine flights have been illegally delivering military arms to Israel via Irish sovereign airspace since last October. Furthermore, this is backed by findings from the Department of Transport’s own investigation reported on September 24th, titled: “Flights rerouted after reports of military cargo”. It’s noteworthy that this evidence contradicts Minister Ryan’s denial of the issue brought up with the introduction of our Air Navigation and Transport (Arms Embargo) Bill to the Seanad back in May.
Indeed, nine out of the eleven flights studied were found meddling in arms trafficking to Israel, but we’ll probably never find out the exact number of these such flights. Despite regulations giving the Minister authority to check aircrafts, no inspections were conducted in the past year. This include the 1,000 flights, each of which received special exemptions from the Minister to transport “weapons, munitions or dangerous goods”.
The horrifying possibility is that our airspace has been a conduit for additional military hardware fuelling havoc in Gaza, which the International Court of Justice has warned could lead to genocide.
It’s time the Government faces up to issues of misuse of sovereign airspace, a clear violation of both military neutrality, as well as domestic and international legal obligations. Inspections could have been made compulsory had our Arms Embargo Bill been passed, and this could have helped to prevent exemptions being granted for aircrafts implicated in the transportation of weaponry, munitions or potentially harmful dual-use goods likely to land in Israel.
Given how the Minister’s previous public statements seem to downplay the need for an Arms Embargo Bill, we now know his words are far from the reality.
No longer can the Government stall progress on the Bill. The Minister must be held accountable to promptly start inspections and cease granting exemptions.
Yours sincerely,
Senator ALICE-MARY HIGGINS,
Senator FRANCES BLACK,
Senator LYNN RUANE,
Senator EILEEN FLYNN,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2.