A chara, – Fintan Lane (January 23rd) suggests we should ask the"'US war machine" to remove itself from Shannon Airport as an obvious solution to Minister for Justice Alan Shatter's complaint that the State expended more than €17.3 million in security costs at Shannon between 2004 and 2013 because of opposition to US military presence at the airport.
€17.3 million is not the only cost to the State that has been incurred by the US military presence in Shannon. Figures from the Department of Transport in 2011 revealed €25 million had been paid over the previous 10 years to the Irish Aviation Authority to cover the costs of foreign military aircraft in Irish airspace.
The reason military flights are exempt from charges was explained by security analyst Tom Clonan ( "€10,000 per day for US military overflights has not really registered on the taxpayers' radar", June 25th, 2005). Ireland has a reciprocal arrangement with the US and some other countries to exempt military aircraft from charges for communication and navigation services. However, as Mr Clonan noted, "We do not enjoy much by way of reciprocity as the government jet is Ireland's only military aircraft to enter foreign airspace".
Austria is a neutral state and, like Ireland, a member of Nato’s Partnership for Peace. Unlike Ireland, Austria does not exempt foreign military aircraft passing through its airspace from air traffic control charges.
By so generously facilitating the use of Shannon Airport to US military aircraft, Irish taxpayers have been, effectively, subsidising the so-called “war on terror”.
People who, like Margaretta D’Arcy, have been bravely protesting at Shannon against the military use of the airport, deserve all our support. – Is mise,
MARY McCARRICK,
Treasurer, Irish Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament,
PO Box 6327, Dublin 6.