Legislation introduced to prevent weapons for Israel transiting through Ireland or Irish airspace puts a “legal obligation on the State to do something that it can’t actually do”, Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien has said.
He told the Civic Engagement Group of Senators that there is a “genuine concern about how this legislation could actually be implemented”.
Independent Senators Alice Mary Higgins, Lynn Ruane, Frances Black and Eileen Flynn last year introduced the Air Navigation and Transport (Arms Embargo) Bill.
It “seeks to ensure that munitions of war, weapons and dangerous goods are not being transferred to Israel through Ireland, either directly or indirectly”.
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The Bill passed second stage and it was reintroduced in the Seanad on Wednesday at committee stage. Mr O’Brien said the Government did not oppose the legislation but it requires “a significant amount of work”.
The committee stage debate comes as Department of Transport figures revealed the number of aircraft permitted to bring military weapons and ammunitions through Ireland, hit a 13-year high.
[ Air strikes kill 53 in Gaza as Israel steps up its offensiveOpens in new window ]
There were 1,354 flights sanctioned last year, a 14 per cent increase on weapons flights in a year and a 67 per cent rise since 2016.
The Minister told the Seanad the number of flights carrying munitions “increased from 2022 to 2023 and remained relatively static in 2024 with an increase of 10”, according to the most up to date figures he had.
“Since October 2023 no exemptions have been applied for or granted for carriage of munitions of war destined for Israel”, he said following criticism that the increase coincided with Israel’s invasion of Gaza following the Hamas attacks on October 23rd 2023.
Ms Higgins said however “it is horrifying to think that the weapons that are being used to destroy so many lives may well have been allowed to pass through Ireland”.
Since the Bill was first introduced there had been many more deaths, bombardments and recently “very worrying reports in relation to 15 paramedics who have been killed and buried in a shallow mass grave”.
There has been an increase in flights and the Government does not know where the bombs, weapons, munitions of war or dual use goods for military purposes “are likely to land and what purpose they are likely to serve,” Ms Higgins said.
Under Irish law the transit of weapons through Ireland or Irish airspace is illegal unless an exemption is granted by the Minister for Transport.
Ms Higgins said the Minister had granted 99 per cent of all applications for exemptions, which had increased hugely in recent years.
She pointed to the 1,354 exemptions granted in 2024 with 142 in January 2025. In 2022 there were 26 requests, for exemptions for Irish registered aircraft operating outside of the State and that rose in 2024 to 519.
There should be no more exemptions where there is a risk they will be used by Israel.
Social Democrats Senator Patricia Stephenson said the Bill “puts Ireland in line with its international obligations. We’re just meeting standards by passing this Bill”.
She said “the Irish Government may have granted exemptions of aircraft carrying munitions of war which have been used in Gaza” and she questioned if the Government could prove that was not the case.
“Is there evidence that can be shown and if not…..then we risk that this State is quite literally enabling and fuelling war and killing.”
Senator Ruane said being complicit “doesn’t necessarily mean the Irish State is directly responsible for the genocide being perpetrated against the Palestinian people. But through our action or inaction we are empowering the agitator.
“Complicity in that context means we can be indirectly responsible for the wrongdoing caused by others. And we are.”
Independent Senator Gerard Craughwell criticised the legislation saying the State “cannot control our airspace”. He asked the Minister “how are you going to inspect aircraft that transits Ireland at 35,000 feet”.
The legislation specifies Israel, but he asked what about other countries such as military regimes in Venezuela or Myanmar. “We can’t simply single out Israel just because we don’t like Israel.”
