Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

The Government cannot refuse for ever to put an adequate inspection regime in place to prevent the possibility of extraordinary rendition of prisoners transiting through Irish airspace and territory. The Government must fulfil its international obligations in regard to human rights. The Minister cannot say "No" forever.

The Human Rights Commission report entitled, Extraordinary Rendition: A Review of Ireland's Human Rights Obligations, was published yesterday. The commission concluded that diplomatic assurances received from the United States Government with regard to the issue of extraordinary rendition flights passing through Irish territory were not sufficient for Ireland to satisfy its human rights obligation. This is a body that was set up by statute to vindicate human rights and the Government is expected to take its recommendations seriously. An equivalent body operates in Northern Ireland and we expect that recommendations made on both sides of the Border should be taken equally seriously.

The report from the Irish Human Rights Commission also stated that it had obtained evidence that as far back as 2003 the Government had raised concerns with the United States about extraordinary rendition flights suspected of transporting prisoners through Shannon to Guantanamo Bay, but beyond raising the issue with the US Government it had been decided to take no other action. To date, the Government has refused to take action.

Two Council of Europe reports were critical of Ireland's position, as was a European Parliament report, and now the report of the Irish Human Rights Commission, which is a statutory body. All these bodies have expressed grave concern about the use of Irish airspace in regard to the CIA practice of extraordinary rendition. The only response from the Government has been to stubbornly refuse to put in place any inspection regime and stubbornly persist in accepting assurance from the United States Government which are not founded on any evidence the Government has been given.

The only people in this country who believe the Government's position is the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the other members of Government. The ordinary people in the street do not believe there has not been some invasion of Irish airspace in respect of extraordinary rendition. The simplest things to do is to dispel the view that is abroad and acknowledge the circumstantial evidence that those four reports to which I referred have produced to date.

The Labour Party rejects the Government's stance on this issue. Human rights are sacrosanct and, given Ireland's reputation on the espousal and implementation of human rights, the Government should respond positively and quickly to the concerns expressed by domestic and international statutory bodies on human rights.

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