Taoiseach Michéal Martin has said that Shannon airport is not being used by US planes involved in bombing campaigns in Iran.

Mr Martin is on the second day of his visit to the United States, as part of St Patrick's Day celebrations.

He will spend the day in Philadelphia before travelling to Washington DC later this evening.

He said there had been repeated attempts to conflate Shannon with both the war in Gaza and the current war in Iran, which were absolutely false.

He said there were established rules in terms of the utilisation of Irish airspace and insisted that "we haven't had any strong evidence that our airspace is being used for any attacks on Iran."

The Taoiseach acknowledged however that the capacity to investigate or intervene if there were transgressions is "challenging and problematic".

Mr Martin also said there is a standing invitation to US President Donald Trump to visit Ireland but said the Government did not have any details as to what his "schedule would permit or whether he is coming to Ireland this year".

Asked about whether he had concerns about immigration policing during St Patrick's Day celebrations,
Mr Martin said none of the groups he had met had expressed those concerns but said "there are concerns more generally, apart from St Patrick's Day, in respect of the undocumented."

Asked if he would raise concerns about ICE with Mr Trump, Mr Martin said: "The engagement is more a two-way discussion, a number of issues will arise and we'll deal with those at the meeting itself."

Asked about whether the Government would intervene to remove of the cap on passenger numbers at Dublin airport, Mr Martin said there was "no alternative to legislating for this, parallel with the planning application that is going through."