Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

As a small, neutral country which has a Constitution and commits itself to freedom and human rights, Ireland must have a position which seeks to vindicate fundamental principles of human rights as manifested in the Constitution, in international law and in the various treaties to which Ireland has signed up. We also have a long-standing framework of support for the institutions of the United Nations and the instruments associated with that body. There is a duty on our Government to vindicate, in so far as it can and in the most active way possible, the protection of human rights of all those who may be on our territory at any time.

There is a broader political context. The war in Iraq was wrong and the Irish Labour Party said so repeatedly. The Government eventually indicated it was opposed to the war but in effect it looked both ways. It sought to offer some reassurances to the position of the United States while also offering an ear, so to speak, to the clear view of the majority of Irish people that the war was wrong. That is not to say that we do not have complete sympathy for the situation in which the United States found itself in the context of 11 September 2001 and the subsequent terrorist attacks on American soil.

The Government is right to acknowledge and remember the long-standing friendship between this country and America, and between people of all political parties in Ireland and the citizens of the United States. There is nothing wrong in that, but the Government should bear in mind that there is a great deal of legal, non-governmental organisation and political opinion in the United States which is equally opposed to the war in Iraq and to the manifestations to which it has given rise.

The extraordinary structure of detention which exists in Guantanamo Bay is wrong. In the long run, the very strong judicial and legal structures of the United States will uphold that view, as the courts have begun to do in the United States on a number of occasions when given the opportunity to do so. Extraordinary rendition as practised by the United States current Government is wrong. We need from our Government a clear statement of principle on the situation in which we find ourselves as a small, neutral country with a particular record and mandate on the defence of human rights and the prevention of torture.

When one waits for flights in American airports and sees groups of hundreds of young US soldiers bound for Iraq or sees them in Shannon Airport half-dazed from their flights back from Iraq and, it is hoped, going home in one piece, there is no one who does not feel for what has happened. However, this does not make the war and all the manifestations to which it has given rise any less wrong.

It is wrong for the Government to have a two-faced approach. On the one hand we accept the assurances of Condoleezza Rice because of her exalted position and our wish to have a positive dialogue with the US on the war. On the other, from the troop levels going through Shannon Airport and the worldwide documentation on extraordinary rendition, we know in our hearts it is wrong. The Government claims it is the friend of the US and it understands from where it is coming, yet it is trying to reassure a sceptical public that what it is doing is above board. The Labour Party has laid out a mechanism which meets the requirements of Irish and international law. It is regrettable the Government avoids discussing these proposals in a serious way.

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