Dáil Report: US military authorities were "quite happy" to continue to use Shannon Airport, the Taoiseach told the Dáil, despite a decision by World Airlines to move 17 troop-carrying flights through another airport.
Mr Ahern said the airline did not link its decision to the "security situation" at the airport. Asked what he thought about the move, he said "the American chief of command for Europe, Gen Wall, said yesterday that he was quite happy to continue to use Shannon". It is understood that all 17 flights have taken place.
The Taoiseach acknowledged that the Government had discussed the security situation at the airport for the first time after the attack last week, despite a previous incident in September, when a plane was daubed. Mr Ahern stressed, however, that security was stepped up last September.
Fine Gael leader Mr Enda Kenny, who raised the issue, demanded the resignation of the Ministers for Defence and Transport because "one of our key airports is not safe". Yesterday 120 troops began security duty at the airport.
Mr Kenny said that World Airlines, the largest commercial airline carrying US soldiers to the Gulf, "has been providing jobs and security to the Shannon area for decades. That business has now been radically cut because its planes are not safe in our hands."
It was "nationally damaging and internationally humiliating" and he said the Taoiseach should ask for the ministers' resignations because of "this appalling incompetence" and "outright shambles".
Attempts by the Green Party to intervene on the issue were ruled out of order.
Mr John Gormley, the party chairman, said the Greens were not happy to have US military aircraft use Shannon and Mr Finian McGrath (Ind, Dublin North-Central) said there was "genuine concern" about such use.
The Taoiseach insisted however that Mr Gormley was not entitled to speak on the issue because he had refused to condemn the attack on a military aircraft at Shannon. "I will not be lectured by him on this issue," Mr Ahern stressed.
Mr Kenny accused the Government of "doing nothing" when three weeks ago it became clear that Shannon would be a "centre for protest and a target for protesters or terrorists".
"Leadership, he said, "is about preventing failure before it happens and not bolting the door when another airline has pulled out".
The Taoiseach said it was not a call he could make to "make decisions on a day-by-day or case-by- case basis on who assists the civil power. I do not come in and decide in the morning that the Army should move into office. That is a matter for the Garda Commissioner."
He said, however, there was a belief initially "that we were dealing with a peaceful protest". Nonetheless, the Government discussed the matter a few hours after last week's attack.
The relevant ministers had a meeting, and the Garda stepped up security.
"There is an enormous perimeter in Shannon and when there was a further attack this week, the Garda Commissioner went to check the position and he asked for the Army to come in.
"We immediately acted and will continue to properly act to safeguard the security of planes and all people in Shannon."
Mr Kenny said however that Shannon was a key strategic airport "yet the last weeks have seen three breaches of security there, the daubing of a plane, two violent attacks and yesterday an RTÉ reporter wandering unhindered into a restricted area".
By Michael O'Regan
and Marie O'Halloran