An Irish lawmaker is calling for new legislation aimed to better inspect U.S. aircraft at an airport that for many years has been used by the United States military.
The international Shannon Airport in Ireland is not a permanent base for aircraft owned and operated by the United States and, more specifically, the U.S. Air Force. However, the airport has long served a strategic relevance for U.S. operations including refueling, a place for cargo planes and military troop carriers to dock, and has also acted as a stopover for service members traveling to war-torn nations in the Middle East like Afghanistan and Iraq.
The decades-long use of the facility by U.S. forces has drawn new criticism from Conor Sheehan, an Irish Labour Party politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for Limerick City since 2024, due to the broader government’s inability to properly assess threats based on seemingly nonexistent inspections.
On Friday, Jan. 23, Sheehan called on the Irish government to swiftly introduce legislation to allow for routine and random physical inspections of aircraft—including U.S. aircraft—at Shannon Airport.
Unsatisfactory Response
Sheehan’s concerns emanate from a written parliamentary question for Irish Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien, who was asked if any legislation was ongoing to allow for routine inspections of U.S. military aircraft in Shannon.
The minister reportedly responded that there has been no instance to date where it was necessary to inspect U.S. aircraft.
The TD called O’Brien’s response “troubling” and a confirmation that no inspections take place unless suspicion already exists. He also found that no new legislation is being introduced to quell those like him who are concerned.
“That is not oversight,” Sheehan said in a statement. “That is blind trust, and blind trust cannot be the basis for policy. What [the] government is saying, in plain terms, is that Ireland has no system of independent, routine or random physical inspections of aircraft landing at Shannon, even though the airport plays a well documented role in facilitating U.S. military movements.
“We only look if we already believe something is wrong, and we have never allowed ourselves to look closely enough to form that belief. That circular logic would not pass muster in any serious regulatory system, and it should not be acceptable here.”
Military.com reached out to Sheehan and the Pentagon for comment.
‘Not Subject to Inspection’
It’s not the first time Irish lawmakers have questioned the nation’s role in aiding the U.S. military.
Previously, now-Ireland President Catherine Connolly asked former Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin a similar question in October 2024 of whether the government intended to put a stop to Shannon Airport being used by the U.S. military, according to the Irish publication Limerick Leader.
“Foreign military aircraft which are given permission to land in Ireland are not subject to inspection in this regard,” Martin responded at the time.
Since roughly 2016, the U.S. reportedly made 7,248 requests to fly over Irish airspace, according to Irish Department of Foreign Affairs records.
RTÉ News (the website of Raidió Teilifís Éireann, Ireland’s National Public Service Media) analyzed Ireland Department of Transport data of U.S. military stops at Shannon, reporting that between 2022 and 2024, roughly 2,000 U.S. military aircraft and U.S. civil air operators with declared munitions of war on-board applied for exemptions to stop in Ireland. Flights were frequently to and from Bulgaria, Germany, Kuwait and Poland, they found.
Of all those aircraft, routijne searches and inspections were essentially nonexistent. planes are not routinely searched or inspected by Irish authorities. Only about 0.1% of applications from U.S. civil aircraft were refused to land or fly over Ireland due to the “nature of the total munitions of war proposed to be carried”, RTÉ News found.
Just yesterday, U.S. President Donald and Air Force One stopped to refuel on the Shannon Airport tarmac after returning home from his visit to Davos, Switzerland, per reports. Air Force One departed after about 70 minutes on-site.
Sheehan said the long-held U.S. military presence at the airport should be reviewed in the manner of “international context,” alluding to the current foreign policy framework adopted and developed by the U.S. and other nations—in addition to the risks being endured by Ireland.
What we are witnessing in the United States and across the world is a profound shift in the global order. – Conor Sheehan
“Against that backdrop, it is extraordinary that Ireland still lacks a clear legislative framework to allow independent inspections at Shannon Airport. Relying on a suspicion threshold that is never met because inspections do not happen is not neutrality, it is negligence.
“The minister’s reply confirms that no decision has been taken to introduce legislation to allow for routine or random inspections. That is a political choice. The call from Labour is clear: Government must bring forward legislation to allow for routine and random inspections of aircraft at Shannon Airport. This needs to happen now, not at some undefined point in the future.”
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