Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 402: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if his Department has been contacted by the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles, or other representatives of the Council of Europe, regarding the illegal transportation of prisoners through Shannon Airport; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1232/06]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Foreign Affairs has not been contacted in regard to this matter by Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles.

Two investigations are under way under the aegis of the Council of Europe. The first is an investigation by Senator Dick Marty, a rapporteur appointed by the committee on legal affairs and human rights 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 information memorandum to the committee on legal affairs and human rights, accurately records the Government's "total condemnation" of the practice of extraordinary rendition.

In respect of the second investigation, as I informed the House on 14 December 2005, and more recently on 31 January 2006, the Government has co-operated fully with the secretary general's request, which he sent on 21 November 2005. Preparation of the Government's response has required input from a number of different Departments and Government bodies. This response, in which the Government emphatically answers in the negative the secretary general's questions on whether "unacknowledged deprivation of liberty" might have taken place in Ireland, is complete and was transmitted to the secretary general yesterday, before the deadline he had set.