Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I will answer by stating exactly the decision of the subcommittee. The matter is ongoing. The subcommittee granted the Minister for Foreign Affairs the authority to contact the new administration, as I did several years ago when I held that portfolio. I was the first Minister in the European Union to call for the closure of Guantanamo Bay. I was the first Minister to demand from the USA administration that Ireland should not be used for rendition and I received guarantees to that effect before any other member state of the European Union.

It was agreed by the subcommittee that the Minister for Foreign Affairs will contact the new administration to seek a clear statement that extraordinary rendition will cease and would not resume during the new US presidential term, that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay would close and that intensive interrogation techniques such as water-boarding, which is considered by international agreement to constitute torture, would be clearly prohibited. The subcommittee further agreed to strengthen as necessary the legislative provisions and review the statutory powers available to civil and police authorities in the jurisdiction allowing search and inspection of aircraft, including those provided under the Air Navigation and Transport Acts in the context of the obligations on the State under the Chicago Convention. The subcommittee also agreed that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform would make a statement setting out the steps to give effect to human rights training in the Garda Síochána as agreed in the programme for Government and the powers, resources and duties of the Garda Síochána for inspection of aircraft.

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