Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

As the final speaker on the Government side, I welcome the opportunity to support the counter-motion. A degree of clarity has emerged from the debate, and I especially welcome the emerging consensus that the use of Irish airports for the purpose of covertly transferring prisoners as part of an extraordinary rendition operation is highly unlikely to have taken place.

I wish to reiterate some key points made by Government speakers. The suggestion that prisoners may have been transferred through Ireland as part of an extraordinary rendition operation is not supported by any of the investigations, whether of the Government, the Council of Europe or the European Parliament. Essentially, as Amnesty International has emphasised, the debate is not about prisoner transfer, rather about how best to fulfil Ireland's positive obligations to ensure this does not happen.

On one side of the House, the argument is made for searches, that aircraft landing at Irish airports should be searched to ensure that they are not carrying, and have not carried, prisoners for the purposes of extraordinary rendition. However, the debate has shown that the aircraft that are alleged to be involved in this activity are identified only months, at the earliest, after they land. Furthermore, civilian aircraft of the type in question are not, under international law, required to apply for permission to land, meaning that a transited country may have very little notice of the arrival of such an aircraft. In this context, a regime of random search and inspection would be of limited value in achieving the desired goal.

Moreover, given that, at most, the allegations are that such aircraft passed empty through Ireland, it is impossible to see how even if such aircraft were to be identified and searched, the outcome of such searches would shed any light on the matter. It is the Government's firmly held view that its positive obligations in this area are best met by its approach of obtaining, at the earliest opportunity, clear, unqualified assurances from the US authorities in this area. These assurances have been confirmed by the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. This unparalleled combination of bilateral, specific assurances, combined with confirmation from the highest levels of the US Government, fulfils in the most effective manner the Government's positive obligations in this area.

On the incident on Sunday, where it transpired that a US marine convicted of a petty crime had inadvertently been transferred back to the US on an aircraft transiting through Shannon, while this was clearly not a case of extraordinary rendition, the Government, as Members have heard already, treated this incident with the utmost gravity. The US authorities are fully aware of the seriousness with which the Government treats this matter, and a thorough review of procedures, both in Ireland and on the US side, is under way.

While I take little consolation in the matter, the fact that even a critic of the Government's policy like Amnesty International could describe our response as "swift and decisive" indicates the Government's firm intention to ensure that all our obligations under international law are met. It is and will remain the Government's policy that we are opposed to the practice of extraordinary rendition.

We attach the utmost importance to fulfilling our obligations under international law, and it is our firm view that our current policy does this best. We have acted decisively over the past week to maintain the integrity of our systems, and Deputies can rest assured that we will do so again whenever necessary.

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