Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Micheál Martin said there may have been occasions in the past where RAF jets had entered Irish airspace “for different reasons”.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has insisted that any arrangements with the RAF to police Irish airspace against Russian intruders are “consistent with our foreign defence and security policy”.
But Mr Varadkar refused to give the Dáil any details about the air defence agreement with the UK, which The Irish Times reported earlier this week has been in place since 1952.
“The security of our skies is a national security question and, therefore, I am limited in what I can say about it... We have a very good and effective Air Corps in Ireland. We do not have an air force of the nature of the United Kingdom, France, Russia or the US and we never will. We have to put in arrangements for certain scenarios and we have arrangements for certain scenarios to assure our safety and national security,” he said.
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He told the Dáil he would not sanction a debate on the issue.
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Earlier, Mr Martin said reports of a deal between Ireland and the UK, allowing the RAF to intervene in Irish airspace in the event of an attack, were inaccurate, but declined to elaborate. Mr Martin was speaking following the report in The Irish Times.
Speaking to reporters at the same time in Trim, Co Meath at the annual conference of the Permanent Defence Force Other Ranks Representative Association (Pdforra), Mr Martin said: “We don’t talk about national security but any agreements Government enters into are fully aligned with national sovereignty and sovereign decision making and with military neutrality.”
He repeatedly refused to go into more detail, citing national security concerns.
Last November, UK minister of state for defence James Heappey told the UK parliament that RAF jets “have deployed into Irish airspace on occasion. It is for the Irish Government to set out their policy on why, when and how.”
Asked about these comments on Tuesday, Mr Martin said “there may have been occasions in the past for different reasons. But again, I think a bit of common sense should prevail here.”
He said “these are not issues where you publicly identify every aspect of your national security strategy. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Despite the policy of successive governments to refuse to publicly discuss the agreement, it has occasionally been referenced in the Dáil. In 2005 then taoiseach Bertie Ahern said there was “co-operation and a pre-agreed understanding on those matters” when asked if the RAF would intercept an aircraft over Ireland.
At a post-Cabinet briefing for journalists, the Government spokesman declined to say if comments by the then minister for foreign affairs and defence Simon Coveney last year, in which he said there was no “overflight arrangements” with the RAF, still represented the Government’s position.
Answering questions from independent Senator Gerard Craughwell, Mr Coveney told the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs committee: “We do not have overflight arrangements with the RAF, to be clear.”
When Mr Craughwell interjected to say, “We could call it in if we need it,” Mr Coveney replied: “That is not how it works. It has to apply to Ireland if it has an emergency reason to enter our airspace. Notification procedures relating [to] occasions on when that happens are in place.”
Asked about the comments on Tuesday, Mr Coveney’s spokesman replied: “We cannot comment on matters of State security.”
