Dr. John Lannon:

Yes and we are disagreeing on a number of grounds. One is that the assurances may be interpreted as meaning that no prisoners were taken, shackled, through Shannon Airport. We have said repeatedly and state again today that there does not need to be a prisoner on board the plane in order for it to be complicit in torture, human rights abuse and extraordinary rendition. We know from reports by the likes of Amnesty International, including Breaking the Chain: Ending Ireland's role in renditions, that there have been at least four - or six according to other researchers - incidents where planes that were directly involved in rendition circuits used the facilities at Shannon Airport.

On that basis we refute the diplomatic assurances that Ireland has not been involved in renditions. I would draw the attention of Senator O'Keeffe and the other members of the committee to the fact that the United States gave similar assurances to the British Government a number of years back but it was subsequently discovered that a prisoner, Diego Garcia, had been taken through British territory they had to roll back on that assurance. Based on that evidence, there is no reason to believe the diplomatic assurances.