David Norris (Independent)

All Members of the House will take the matter I wish to raise seriously. I have asked the Leader on numerous occasions in recent months to provide information about a Gulfstream jet that has been landing at Shannon Airport and last week she kindly furnished me with the information she had succeeded in getting. I read it carefully; it consists of a report from The Sunday Business Post and answers to parliamentary questions in the other House. These are all matters of public record, but they raise serious questions and do not answer the questions I have been asking. It is clear that the Minister was aware of reports that the aeroplane, N379P, had been involved in extraordinary rendition, namely, kidnapping citizens of other countries and taking them to third locations for torture. He also confirmed he was aware of these reports, and now of course we know that this is the subject of international legal action by one of the victims involved and of a protest by the Swedish Government. He confirmed that the aeroplane had landed 13 times up until the end of 2003. The American authorities have never notified the Minister for Transport or the Department of Transport of these landings. The aircraft got a new registration this year, N8068V, and has used Shannon three times already in 2004.

I would like the Leader to ascertain the reason for this change. It obviously succeeded in one respect — it misled the Minister. He stated on 19 October that the aeroplane had not used Shannon at all in 2004——