Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This afternoon some of the so-called hooded men and their legal representatives are in the Public Gallery. They have just held a briefing session for Deputies and Seanadóirí in the audiovisual room. As the Taoiseach will know, last month the European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, rejected a request by the Government to find that the men had suffered torture at the hands of the British army and the RUC special branch. The 14 men involved were tortured for seven days, using brutal in-depth interrogation techniques, including being placed in stress positions, subjected to white noise, sleep deprivation, deprivation of food and water and receiving beatings and death threats. It was torture plain and simple.

The men have urged the Government to appeal the ECHR's decision.

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