Air Navigation and Transport (Arms Embargo) Bill 2024 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-22 ============================================================ Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland If these are technical issues and if there are specifics wished for in exactly how the inspections will take place, exactly how the seizures will be conducted and exactly what physical steps will be taken in relation to it, then I would say the Government has the capacity to bring amendments specifying those details. The Government has the capacity to bring in secondary legislation, if it wishes to, by regulation or to bring amendments in respect of how it would like inspections to be conducted. Frankly, the Government is suggesting that we cannot move forward. After years of inaction and a specific requested year in the form of a timed amendment when there has been inaction, we have answered the question as who is going to do it and what they going to do but because it does not say exactly how they are going to do it in the Bill, the Government is suggesting that makes it hard for it to move forward. Come on. If there was ever a "hold me back", ridiculous position taken by the Government - the suggestion is that there is a gap in how laws are enforced. By the way, in the core Act there is no new action. We are talking about the already existing issue of the right for inspections to take place. That already exists but we simply are saying that they need to start happening. A crucial point is we are talking about a situation whereby the Government is choosing each flight. The base position, as I said, is the prohibition of the transit of arms, ammunition, weapons and dangerous goods through our airspace or airports. Each individual flight that lands in Ireland or that flies over Ireland is required to seek direct permission. We are talking about a base level whereby the Government is choosing each of the exemptions. It is a choice every time an exemption is made to allow the transit of those weapons. We have heard about them and what they do in clear detail. Each time, it is a choice. When it involves civil aircraft, it is a choice made by the Minister for Transport. The powers of inspection have been there for years. I will quote the Minister for Transport, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, when he spoke here one year ago: We have an existing legal regime. That needs to be used to its fullest and our current legislation does provide for the inspection of civil aircraft where there is an appearance or a likelihood that it will depart Ireland and contravene Irish law. We have strong provisions in place. Now the Minister of State is saying a difference is made by stating who will do the inspections. If the gap is there, it is a gap that already existed. If the gap is there, why were we being told one year ago by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, that there were strong powers and he planned to use them? We are working through fixing the excuses but as we know, the core excuse - the core reason - is that the Government does not want to do it and does not want to know. We have come back and said exactly who can do it. We have been clear that what we want them to do is what the State should already have been doing anyway, which is inspecting. We are just making it that the State must inspect. The Minister of State said that the Government needs technical details of exactly how. Senator Clonan explained how he was able to go in and see pretty clearly and observe what is happening. If there is a desire among the Government and it has specifics of exactly how it would like these inspections to be taking place, it is for the Government to bring amendments, as it could on Report Stage and as it will be able to in the Dáil, as part of the many Stages ahead of us in that House. To be clear, what the Minister of State is telling us right now is that the Government is not only opposing the Bill but is also not supporting these amendments. Even though the Minister of State has said that these amendments address the question of who shall do the actions, he has said that he believes there is a new gap, which is around how they will do the inspections. That is not a basis for opposing the clarity around who will perform the actions. That is not a rationale for opposing these amendments. It is certainly not a rationale for opposing the legislation. As I said, it is only practising a new excuse for inaction, which is essentially a choice. I have used the word "inaction" but I should not say it is inaction. It is not inaction because 17,000 women and girls have died in the 12 months that we have been waiting for this Bill to be allowed back into the Chamber. Real actions killed them. Real weapons took their lives. It is not inaction but complicity. It is allowing transit. The Government is now saying this is getting close to forcing it to name who will do the job but it will try to put up another hurdle and make it even harder again. I did not hear in the Minister of State's reply an answer to the question I asked him, which was what has been happening in the past 12 months. The Government said it wanted to do investigations into the documented cases of weapons and military goods passing over our airspace. What happened with the investigations? The Government said it wanted to use the current legislation to its fullest and to employ the strong provisions that are in place but there have been zero inspections. There have been no inspections. I would like an answer to what has been done for the past 12 months. If the Minister of State has obstacles that he believes are in his way and preventing him from taking action, I would like to know what he is doing about addressing them. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-22/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-22