On Thursday Paul Murphy introduced the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2026 in the Dáil. This is a Bill to prohibit U.S. military aircraft, or civil aircraft carrying munitions of war, from landing in the State.
The US military has been permitted to use Shannon airport for decades. Its presence there increased sharply from 2002 as Shannon became a key transit hub for US troops travelling to participate in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. In excess of 3 million US troops are estimated to have passed through the airport since then.
There have been large increases in US military aircraft and munitions passing through Shannon airport coinciding with Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the US war on Iran.
Paul Murphy said
“The US military’s use of Shannon airport is a long-running breach of our neutrality that must be ended.
“The US military presence there increased sharply from 2002 to facilitate the US’s invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, invasions that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
“An estimated 3 million US troops and unknown quantities of weapons and ammunition have passed through Shannon since then. Dozens of US military and civilian aircraft with weapons onboard land and take off from Shannon every month, with little, if any intervention or checks.
“In 2024, the Department of Transport approved 1,354 applications for civil aircraft or Irish-registered aircraft to carry military weapons or ammunition through Ireland, representing a 14 percent increase over 2023. This coincided with the early stages of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, a genocide largely armed by the US. There is a strong likelihood that US weapons bound for Israel passed through Shannon airport.
“More recently, the number of US troops passing through Shannon increased by 80 per cent during March this year, just after the US began its attacks on Iran. This indicates that Shannon airport is being used by the US to pursue its war on Iran.
“The Government has no intention of stopping this. On the contrary, it's clear the Government is covertly facilitating the US war machine by feigning ignorance about what the US is doing and feigning a lack of power to intervene.
“Therefore, we are bringing forward this Bill to ban US military aircraft from Shannon, to end this blatant breach of our neutrality, and to end the Government’s complicity in the US military’s reign of terror in the Middle East.”