Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

——by the friendly government of a country with which we have an exceptionally close relationship. No plausible evidence has been produced that aircraft have passed through Shannon Airport carrying prisoners being transported as part of an extraordinary rendition operation. The number of supposedly implicated flights that have transited through Shannon is minuscule in comparison with the overall number of flights of similar aircraft stopping there.

A policy of spot checks could have only a cosmetic affect. Furthermore, the allegations relate not to recent events but to those which it is claimed happened several years ago. This retrospective imposition of a pattern of movements would be a flimsy basis on which to depart from a long-established practice.

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