Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Senator Gallagher. Fianna Fáil supports the motion on the case of the hooded men which relates to events that took place during a dark period of the Troubles. The legal ramifications echo to this very day. The case should be appealed to the courts.

It is disappointing that the Government had to be taken to the High Court by legal representatives of the hooded men in order to be encouraged to take the most recent case, which came to a conclusion with which we are not satisfied. Hence our demand that it to be taken to the higher court. What happened to the hooded men has been outlined, including the interrogation techniques used, such as stress positions, white noise, sleep deprivation, food and water deprivation, having hoods placed over them for days at a time and being subjected to physical and mental torture.

One European body found that they were tortured but this was overturned, on appeal, by the relevant court. We know from the most recent revelations in the courts that much of the information which should have been supplied by the British side was withheld. That is why we need to ensure that the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, which will comprise 17 judges rather than the seven involved in hearing the case previously, will overturn the judgment handed down and find that what happened constituted torture.

It is important that what the men were subjected to is found to be torture by a European court. The case is being used by regimes, democratic and otherwise, all over the world as an excuse to subject prisoners to the same methods to this very day. Enhanced interrogation techniques were used in Abu Ghraib and other places about which we will never hear. If we do not pursue this to the end, we will be doing a disservice to humanity for generations to come. This ruling is being used time and again by no less an authority than the White House and others to justify the use of torture. No word other than torture can be used to describe to what these men were subjected. To say that enhanced interrogation techniques were used is an appalling use of any language because no human being could go through the treatment these men were subjected to and come out the same person on the other side. To not be affected would be beyond human capacity.

The techniques used were designed so that people would be affected and afraid, not just those who were subjected to them but also their families. Others would get the message that this could befall them if they did not lie down and remain silent. In this instance, the British Government was the regime which was subjecting what it believed to be its citizens to such treatment. If it happened in Finchley, which, as Mrs. Thatcher believed, was as British as Northern Ireland, I imagine people would have gone to jail. However, nobody has gone to jail. The Crown Prosecution Service is making no attempt to have any of those involved put in jail because they are immune from prosecution due to the fact that this was a political decision taken at the highest level. The European courts are giving it political cover by saying that while distressing as the techniques were, they did not constitute torture. I do not believe anyone in this room or anywhere in the world could support such an assertion by any court. That is why we support the motion.

Is the Government going to have to be taken to the High Court? Having spoken to the solicitors for the men, I understand they will have to take the Government to the High Court again. It is not a legal issue as much as it is a political one. Does the Government have the will to take the British Government to court? It is down to the 17 judges to decide whether what happened was torture but it is up to the Government to take the case to the next level. It is not doing it on behalf of the 14 hooded men or their families. Rather, it is doing it on behalf of all of the people who could be arrested and subjected to the same techniques because of the ruling of a court nearly four decades ago.