Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

Moreover, it seems they are chartered only temporarily by the CIA and are then returned to their owners for normal aviation purposes. Even if by chance, an aircraft involved in illegal activity elsewhere were to be searched, what would such a search reveal? I repeat that gardaí have all the powers they need to search aircraft which they suspect of being used for illegal purposes. There have been Garda investigations, none of which has uncovered any wrongdoing.

I wish to turn now to the European Parliament committee report that prompted the original motion for this debate. The Senators who moved the motion have picked out two of the report's suggestions, which I will address in a moment. Before doing so, however, I would like to speak briefly on the report in general. As I have already mentioned, we welcome the finding implicit in the report that prisoners have not been transferred through Irish territory, in keeping with the categorical assurances that we have received from the US authorities. However, it is a matter of profound regret that certain members of the European Parliament's committee, acting for partisan reasons, squandered the opportunity to produce a forward-looking document, which focused on the changes that need to be made in future. These include the regulation of international civil aviation, as suggested by the Minister for Foreign Affairs during his exchange of views with the committee. They have instead used the report to score political points in a manner which undermines the credibility and accuracy of the final report. This is both disappointing and regrettable.

One can pick many holes in the report and I do not propose to go through a line-by-line rebuttal of each of its many questionable points. However, I will pick out a number of items which I cannot allow to go unanswered. The first of these is the inflated figure — to which colleagues have already referred — of 147 allegedly suspicious landings of aircraft in Ireland. As the amended motion records, the committee rapporteur's method of obtaining this figure is highly opaque. We do know that his analysis includes any aircraft said to have been used in any extraordinary rendition missions on different occasions, aircraft which have landed at airports in "suspicious" countries, and aircraft previously believed to have been suspicious and which have been re-registered. Notwithstanding the clear evidence unearthed by his own committee, which shows that the CIA operates aircraft for only a brief period before returning them to normal use, the rapporteur adopted a "once used, forever tainted" approach to identifying aircraft. This had the advantage from the rapporteur's perspective of delivering headline-grabbing figures, but its flaws undermine the credibility of the entire European Parliament process.

My last intervention on this matter in this House was made just after Senator Marty of the Council of Europe had published his report on the matter. It is worth quoting Senator Marty when he warns in that report, "We undermine our credibility and limit the possibility for serious discussion if we make allegations that are ambiguous, exaggerated or unsubstantiated." Mr. Simon Coveney, MEP made this very point during the Minister for Foreign Affairs's appearance. Regrettably, the report of European Parliament committee does just this.

In addition to our doubts about the report's landing statistics, I would highlight its call for a ban on all CIA aircraft landing in Ireland, which we see echoed in tonight's original motion. This proposed ban is extraordinary for two reasons. First, Ireland is the only country in the report in regard to which such a ban is called for, so that such aircraft could, according to the terms of the report, land in Scotland, England or elsewhere instead. This bizarre situation is explained by the fact the ban call results from an amendment tabled by an Irish MEP whose goal would appear to have been more to make political charges than to use his privileged position to examine ways of preventing this practice. Second and more seriously, the call for an absolute ban on landings by CIA-operated aircraft here is based on the illegitimate assumption that all CIA-operated flights are inherently sinister. Again, in his findings last summer, Senator Marty emphasised that "not all flights of CIA aircraft participate in 'renditions'", and he has acknowledged on other occasions that only a tiny minority of such flights might be engaged in such a practice.

There are many legitimate reasons for international co-operation in intelligence matters. The report's suggestion that all such co-operation by Ireland should be cancelled because of a risk of extraordinary rendition, which it in any event recognises does not occur through Ireland, is ludicrous. I urge Senators to think very carefully before supporting a motion which contains such a fundamentally flawed proposal.

The second of the report's proposals that is picked up in tonight's motion is the suggestion that the Oireachtas launch a parliamentary investigation into the use of Irish territory in this matter. In response, I recall that Seanad Éireann has twice voted not to establish such a committee. With all due respect to the European Parliament, Senators were not waiting for an invitation from that body to establish an investigation. Rather, having considered the matter twice in the past year, and having evaluated the paucity of evidence to support establishing such a committee, they decided not to do so.