John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

The Minister of State claims this is distinct from extraordinary rendition but does this incident not confirm that the Government does not have a clue what is going on in Shannon Airport but must wait for a cleaner to board an aircraft? The authorities at Shannon Airport did not contact the Government but contacted the US Embassy. The Government is completely out of the loop. Is it not the case that the Minister of State does not know whether extraordinary rendition is taking place and would prefer not to know? That is probably closer to the point.

Will the Minister of State please outline what protocols are in place? I understand that permission is required from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform for prisoners to go through Shannon Airport. Will the Minister of State confirm this? We are none the wiser on the requirements after this incident.

Is it not the case as stated in The Examiner, that there are no protocols in place? Is it the case that the troops we see wearing uniforms in Shannon and elsewhere, for example, in the recent incident in Ennis, are in breach of Irish defence legislation? Is this acceptable?

I regret that the Minister for Foreign Affairs is not here to answer my question directly. He told The Guardian that because of this incident we would have to conduct searches of the aeroplanes. The Minister of State did not mention these in his response. From now on will we conduct random searches, or was that promise made hastily after this incident? I see the Minister of State nodding which is interesting. Will he confirm to the House that the Government will conduct these searches?

Many Deputies on this side of the House have been calling for that sort of action for some time and have received a negative response.

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