Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 382: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if his Department is co-operating with the Council of Europe in its investigation into US rendition flights; the information, if any, his Department is withholding or plans to withhold from the investigators; the information his Department has provided or expects to provide; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3219/06]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Two investigations are currently under way under the aegis of the Council of Europe. The first is an investigation by Senator Dick Marty, a rapporteur appointed by the legal affairs committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The second takes the form of a questionnaire which has been sent to all member states of the Council of Europe by the Secretary General, Mr. Terry Davis.

In respect of the first investigation, the Department of Foreign Affairs has not been contacted by Senator Marty who, in his most recent memorandum, accurately records the Government's "total condemnation" of the practice of rendition.

In respect of the second investigation, as I informed the House on 14 December 2005, the Government is co-operating fully with the Secretary General's request. This will require input from a number of different Departments and Government bodies, and detailed work is actively and well under way in formulating the Government's response. This response will take its structure largely from the form of the questionnaire, namely, a description of domestic law relating to the issues raised by the Secretary General, followed by a comprehensive reply to his questions on the possibility that any "unacknowledged deprivation of liberty" might have taken place in Ireland. While the content of the Government's reply has not yet been finalised, I can assure the Deputy that my Department has no intention of withholding any information.