A former Irish Air Corps captain tells Sky News the existence of a deal with the RAF was an 'open secret' among Irish pilots - as a 2022 report warned Ireland 'has no air defence capability of any significance'.
"Absolutely", he says."We all know the capabilities of the PC-9, and one of the capabilities it doesn't have is to intercept fast-moving aircraft, such as a Russian"Bear" bomber or a rogue airliner.Advertisement
But even though the Irish Times this week reported the agreement dates back to 1952, the Irish pilots were never officially briefed. We asked Micheal Martin, Ireland's tanaiste and defence minister, if he denied the existence of the arrangement with the British government.When pressed on who would interdict a Russian bomber, given that the Irish Air Corps cannot, Mr Martin replied:"I've said what I've said, I'm not going into national security any further than that. These are not issues that you publicly identify… it doesn't make sense, period. It just doesn't make sense.
Speaking in the Dail this week, the taoiseach , Leo Varadkar said that"we do not have an air force of the nature of the United Kingdom, France, Russia or the US and we never will."We have to put in arrangements for certain scenarios and we have arrangements for certain scenarios to assure our safety and national security."Last November however, the Armed Forces minister James Heappey told the Commons that"RAF jets have deployed into Irish airspace on occasion.
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