The Government did not charge the makers of Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the use of the Naval Service's LÉ Samuel Beckett and an Air Corps helicopter while scenes from the upcoming blockbuster were filmed on Skellig Michael off Co Kerry last summer.
The Irish Times reports that the Department of Defence confirmed that "reimbursement was not sought" from Disney Lucasfilm, but that the Naval Service did not incur additional costs as the LÉ Samuel Beckett was on "sailing orders at the time".
The ship provided an exclusion zone around Skellig Michael when filming was taking place, while an Air Corps helicopter was used for one reconnaissance flight during the three-day shoot.
The paper says that the Department said that the use of the Naval Service and Air Corps came about as "aid to the civil authority requests made by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht".
The Department continued: "Whilst the Air Corps was not deployed as part of this operation, it did carry out one reconnaissance mission at the request of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht."
The Irish Times also reports that further Star Wars filming on Skellig Michael is due to take place in the coming months, with a production team having revisited the UNESCO world heritage site a few weeks ago.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is released on December 18.
