Mr. Colm O'Gorman:

As the committee may be aware, Ebraheem Halawa was arrested with three of his sisters who were all detained at the same time. He is an Irish citizen who has lived here and I am sure he will be very eager to come back. He was 17 years old when he was arrested and has been held ever since. He is now 18.

I agree that we need to have concern, sympathy and perhaps empathy for the Greek Government in the situation in which it has found itself. I also agree that there is a need for the European Union to look at a burden sharing approach to the issue of protection. I flagged the question of it giving Greece €227 million to secure its borders versus the €20 million given to respond to the needs of those seeking protection as an example of its priorities, not those of Greece. Let us remember that is European funding.

Previously, there was an Amnesty briefing on detention centres in Libya. As members of the committee may be aware, there is great concern about Europe externalising its responsibilities and also outsourcing its responsibilities to provide protection. EU-funded or part-funded detention centres for migrants in Libya, where we have documented significant acts of torture and ill-treatment, is another issue of significant concern for us.

We agree that there must be a European response. That is why we launched a campaign, SOS Europe, which focuses specifically on the question of fortress Europe. Equally, we will continue to condemn the human rights violations committed by Greece, for which there is no excuse. Greece has consistently denied the pushbacks, despite all the evidence to the contrary. We hope to see the European Union taking significant action against Greece on foot of these violations.

With regard to Boko Haram, towards the end of last week we produced clear evidence that the Nigerian authorities had had a minimum of four hours notice of the attack on Chibok and also that they would have been made aware of, at different levels, the fact that the school was a building of interest to those who were going to attack Chibok, yet they failed to act. I remember reading that when the Boko Haram fighters reached Chibok, they encountered 17 army personnel who left after a short battle, despite the fact that the knowledge outlined had been available. We have confirmed and verified, through a number of sources, the names and identities of senior officials to whom these concerns were passed, both at state or federaland at military level. Obviously, we must be careful about revealing the source of this information for safety reasons, but they include senior military personnel. We are very clear that the Nigerian authorities had significant and advance warning of the attack on Chibok, yet they did nothing to prevent it from happening.

We understand the point made that this is a small committee and the question of what Ireland can do in terms of providing support. It should continue to do everything it can at the Council of Europe, in the European Union and at the United Nations but also in its ongoing bilateral engagements with other states. It is in its bilateral discussions and engagements on human rights issues that Ireland has traditionally been able to exert influence through considered, appropriate, sensitive and sensible diplomacy. Ireland recognises that real change happens through the establishment of relationships, not necessarily by banging on tables and shouting at people. We believe every opportunity, including bilateral discussions, should be used to advance respect for human rights.

In the context of the question on the developing world, Deputy Eric Byrne is right. We have talked about torture, but we gave it a regional focus because of the purpose of this hearing. However, the Deputy was right to flag the fact that public acceptance of torture, or the view that it is justified, undoubtedly, has its origins in the degrading of international protections and the increasing justification of torture by countries that previously would have championed campaigns against it. It is particularly revealing - we have talked about this repeatedly - that in 1948 the US prosecuted a Japanese soldier for waterboarding. However, in the past decade it has spent a lot of time justifying and suggesting waterboarding does not constitute torture and is not illegal in the first instance. When the great defenders of human rights become the great violators, that gives licence and, frankly, even greater impunity to those who might be minded to engage in it.

The Deputy referred to the "black sites" of secret prisons. We knew where they were. There were at least six in Europe, including in Lithuania, Poland and Romania. Credible information from the European Union, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, journalists and NGOs indicates - this matter is mentioned on page 37 of our document - that there were secret CIA detention sites in Lithuania, Poland and Romania between 2002 and 2006. Only Romania has held an investigation in the form of a secret parliamentary inquiry that lasted a few hours and the conclusion was kept secret, except for one short public announcement that the country was not involved in any way in rendition and secret detention programmes.

Of course, it is important to point out that there has never been an investigation conducted by the Government or the State into the role it played in the rendition programme. There is no doubt, however, that Ireland facilitated the programme. It is very clear from the evidence revealed in research we carried out for many years that on a number of occasions flights on rendition circuits landed and refuelled at Shannon Airport. Members may be aware of evidence from Wikileaks cables from the US Embassy in Dublin that a previous Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade was aware of the situation.

Dermot Ahern in those cables made it clear that he believed that it happened on a number of occasions. There is a need for an investigation in Ireland and that not has been delivered. It has not been delivered by this Government, despite promises that it would happen when the Government parties were in opposition. That absolutely needs to happen and it needs to be seen as part of the wider global situation. If we do not stand for the rule of law, how can we demand that others do? As a state in this part of the world, we have to account for ourselves and then demand that others are equally accountable.

I have one suggestion as how to some of this can be advanced. We would be enormously grateful if the committee advanced Ibrahim Halawa's case specifically with the Egyptian authorities and the other cases we have highlighted by making specific calls on them. If the ambassador is invited before the committee, that would be valuable.

With regard to the broader issue of torture, we might agree with the committee a means through which we can share information with it regarding specific countries in order that we could assist it in getting an overview of what are the concerns in those countries, including individual cases. We will have a focus over the next number of years on five countries - Nigeria, Mexico, the Philippines, Morocco and Uzbekistan - where we have identified that is it possible to achieve breakthroughs that would have a significant impact both within those countries and at regional level. We would be happy to come back to talk to the committee about each of them, give examples of cases within those countries and perhaps look at ways in which the committee could engage with their embassies in that regard.