TÁNAISTE MÍCHEÁL MARTIN has said that he is open to the prospect of barring airlines from crossing Irish airspace if they are found to have violated Irish law.

“I think the basic action is saying to those airlines ‘you’re not allowed to fly through Irish airspace if you violate the basic rules’,” he said.

He said that actions like barring flights were “about all we can do”.

“We’re not going to be shadowing planes, that’s not going to be a reality. We expect companies to abide by the basic rules, if you want to transport cargo through our sovereign airspace , you seek permission, and then that gets considered by the Department of Transport.

“That’s the norm, and we expect airlines to comply with that, and if they don’t, there will be consequences,” he said.

He said that the government will consider its options once a final report has been supplied by the Department of Transport. 

Allegations that a number of flights carrying munitions bound for Israel had passed through Ireland’s sovereign airspace first appeared on the news platform The Ditch in August of this year.

The Journal independently determined through sources and open source flight information services that several such flights passed close to Ireland, with some believed to have entered Irish airspace since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza on 7 October.

So far, nine alleged flights have been uncovered.

Any flights passing through Irish airspace carrying “munitions of war” must seek permission to do so.

The Air Navigation Act, first enacted in 1946, contains several orders and statutory instruments which would ban such flights – but also provides for measures which can allow the Government to issue exemptions for them in certain circumstances.

A statutory instrument relating to the Act, which is a legal document signed by a Minister that gives effect to a law, says that “no munitions or weapons of war may be carried by an aircraft in Irish airspace without an exemption granted under the Order”.

According to the government  no such exemptions were sought for any of the alleged flights.

According to the Tánaiste, the Department of Transport has been engaging with authorities in Belgium – where the flights landed en route to Israel from the United States.

With reporting from Niall O’Connor, Jane Matthews and Muiris O’Cearbhaill.