Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I agree that, despite the pervasive lack of hard evidence, aspects of Senator Marty's report are deeply disturbing. In particular, detailed descriptions of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners make harrowing reading. The Government is, of course, completely opposed to torture, but that is not the issue. Senator Marty's report produces no evidence to implicate the Government in the practice. As was noted in the Irish Examiner over the weekend with respect to Ireland, "there is no proof of anything".

On top of the lack of evidence, there is a lack of a clear chain of reasoning. Instead there are cursory assertions, including one that Ireland "could be held responsible for collusion" for being a "stopover" for flights, involving the unlawful transfer of detainees. On behalf of the Government I reject this assertion, which seems to be based, as I will go on to explain, on an implausible, ill-founded analysis of what might conceivably have been possible for us to do.

Senator Marty fails to take account of our opposition to extraordinary rendition and the categoric assurances which we have received that it does not take place through Ireland. To allege collusion without addressing either of those points is grossly unfair. To compound this, neither Senator Marty nor anyone acting on his behalf approached the Government or our representatives on this matter. As I noted at the outset of my speech, the Council of Europe committee on legal affairs has not adopted Senator Marty's report. Senator Norris clearly implied that category A was the worst category.