Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 72: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs when the Government's response to the Council of Europe's inquiry, chaired by a person (details supplied), into secret detention centres and US extraordinary renditions will be issued; if the response will be made public; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7110/06]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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On 14 December 2005, I stated in Dáil Éireann the Government's intention to co-operate fully with the Council of Europe investigations into the allegations mentioned by the Deputy.

Two investigations are currently under way under the aegis of that body. 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 yesterday in response to a parliamentary question, 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 now complete and was transmitted to the Secretary General on Monday in advance of the deadline. The Government's response was laid before Dáil Éireann yesterday. In addition, it has now been made public, and is available for download from the website of the Department of Foreign Affairs.