Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

——as were many of my colleagues within the Fianna Fáil parliamentary group but that is a separate issue.

Having said that, the carefully constructed building the Government presented to the Irish people and that I supported was destroyed in the dust of Shannon Airport last Sunday morning by, I understand, a flight crew member and not a cleaner — that has since been clarified — who reported the matter to the duty manager at Shannon Airport who, in turn, contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs.

In the past decade we talked in this House and the other House about building trust. The basis on which this Government has operated since 1997, and the new Administration in 2002 between the two parties, has been built on trust. The relationship between Ireland and the United States of America has been built on trust. I strongly suggest that as a result of what happened last Sunday, that trust has been seriously eroded. I regret to say that because I am, and always have been, a strong supporter of America. I am not a supporter of the Iraq war. I believe it was a mistake and that subsequent events have proven that but that is not what this debate is about. The fact that the USA breached Irish law last Sunday, either inadvertently or deliberately — we do not yet know which — is a matter of grave concern. I am grateful that the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern — I understand the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, will address this issue in his reply — has immediately taken action by calling in the US ambassador and explaining to him, I believe in robust terms, the unacceptable nature of what happened last Sunday in Shannon.

It is rather ironic that in doing some research for this debate I selected an article in last Sunday's Sunday Independent by John Clarke, a writer on security issues and a contributor to Jane's Defence Weekly, the leading and very credible defence magazine in the world. Reading the article now it is somewhat ironic to read some of the quotes he used to suggest there would be no reason the CIA would use Shannon for prisoners because it does not make any sense when the UK, a NATO member with secure military bases, is close by. In light of what happened on Sunday, some of the quotes have a certain resonance. For example, he states:

Do people really think we Americans are that stupid? Why would we use Shannon for transferring prisoners? It doesn't make sense.

They have been stupid or else they are being conspiratorial, and that is a matter for this Government to investigate and establish the reason. It makes it even more serious in light of what was written in the article in justifying why there would not have been any rendition of prisoners through Shannon Airport. He states:

[For a start], look at the proximity of Shannon to the UK. Why would the CIA use a civilian facility in a neutral, albeit friendly country when, a short hop away across the Irish Sea, they have access to secure military air bases used by the US Air Force? The UK is a fellow member of NATO, fully signed up to Washington's "War on Terror", and America's most important ally among the multinational forces in Iraq.

I might add that there is one element of the article with which I agree and which perhaps might be worthy of reflection. It states:

. . . CIA [agents] use private jets nowadays like other people use taxis, just to get from A to B. Uncle Sam has deep pockets, and is pulling out all the stops in the "War on Terror". Those aircraft are likely to be carrying intelligence agents on various missions, or security guards being transported to carry out protection duty at some US installation abroad, rather than prisoners.

I have to accept that in most cases, and perhaps in all cases up to Sunday, that is the case but it does not necessarily follow that because it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it is a duck. What has plagued this debate on both sides for the past while is that there is an absence of specific evidence. I am aware that those who are proposing that the Government should have taken a more proactive role have been reinforced by the events of last Sunday. I am pleased that the Minister, Deputy Ahern, in the course of a radio interview yesterday evening, said that in bringing proposals to Cabinet on what happened on Sunday, that left open the question of random checks by the gardaí on aeroplanes landing at Shannon. I would welcome that. I have never been opposed to that view. All I ever suggested was that as the United States Administration had repeatedly and consistently said, not just to the European Union, as the Minister again pointed out yesterday in the contextual history he presented of this whole issue, but to the Government in response to specific questions from it, namely, whether they were in violation of Irish law and indulging in extraordinary renditions through Shannon Airport or other Irish airports. The answer was a resounding "No". In view of the close relationship between this country and America I was very happy to accept that. To have accepted otherwise would have been seen as a hostile act by a friendly nation. In light of what happened on Sunday, however, I now fully support the Government if that is the role it wishes to take — to carry out random checks not just on US aeroplanes landing at Shannon Airport but on all aircraft coming through that airport where there is any question of a violation of Irish airspace. That is what has happened in this case.

According to the article by Mr. Clarke, the law on transit applies to a prisoner being transported on a private jet, which it was in this instance, which lands in an Irish airport for refuelling, which it did. He said that without permission the detention of the prisoner on Irish soil would be in violation of Irish law. The law also applies to the transport through an Irish airport by another state of a prisoner on a military aircraft.

In light of this and because of my genuine concern that there should not be any dismantling of the strong and close relationship between this country and America, which allows us to be critical among friends, I would hate to believe that what happened last Sunday was the tip of the iceberg and that, in fact, this was just the latest in a series of violations of Irish law and airspace, which happened to have been discovered by chance by a flight crew member.