An Independent senator has begun a legal action against the Government to find out if it has an agreement with the UK that allows the Royal Air Force to enter Irish airspace.
Senator Gerard Craughwell has issued legal proceedings against the Government, the State and the Attorney General on Monday seeking a declaration from the State that there is agreement in place with the UK that allows the RAF fly armed aircraft over Ireland.
The senator argues that any permission granted to the RAF to intercept aircraft within Irish airspace would be “an impermissible dilution and/or delegation of sovereignty” and that such an agreement would be in breach of several articles of the Constitution.
He claims that allowing British military forces, in particular the RAF, to fly armed aircraft in Irish airspace for the purpose of intercepting aircraft would be a breach of the Constitution because the agreement permitting this arrangement has not been laid before the Dáil.
In his legal case, he argues that the Government’s failure to exercise control over Ireland’s territory, territorial waters and national airspace and exclusive economic zone is also a breach of the Constitution, which declares that Ireland is a sovereign Independent democratic state.
In February 2018, RAF Typhoon fighter aircraft intercepted two Russian bombers flying down the west coast as they transited Irish-controlled airspace about 250 miles off the coast.
British fighter jets were again scrambled in March 2020 from the RAF base in Lossiemouth in northeast Scotland to intercept two Russian bombers in Irish-controlled airspace.
‘Vague’ replies
Senator Craughwell, who has served in both the Irish Defence Forces and the British Army, has long questioned whether an agreement exists that permits the RAF to conduct operations over or around Ireland and the grounds on which the arrangement was agreed by the State.
His legal claims refers to a Dáil reply in November 2005 by then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern that there was “co-operation and a pre-agreed understanding” that the RAF would be called in from either Northern Ireland or Britain to intercept a hijacked aircraft over Irish airspace.
“For the most part, I have been given vague and non-committal replies. I asked three questions of the Government through my solicitors around whether there was an agreement in place and they wrote back asking for more time,” he told The Irish Times
“This question has been asked so often we don’t need to give them more time. There is no great secrecy to this; the question is: how is it happening?”
The senator said that the Constitution states international agreements must be put before the Dáil and that there are “those who feel that this is a referendum issue: even the Oireachtas would not have the right to bring in a sovereign power to protect our sovereignty.”
Mr Craughwell, a senator since 2016, said he would prefer not to have to take legal proceedings but that he has been compelled to do so because he has not been able to get answers to his questions.
“I hate the way sometimes ordinary members of the Dáil and Seanad are treated like fools and we don’t need to be told things,” he said.
“We are either here to oversee Government or we are not.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Defence said it had no comment to make on the senator’s legal action.
