Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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Question 116: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will report on his most recent contact with the US Administration with regard to the practice of rendition flights; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19542/06]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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My most recent contact with the US administration on the matter of extraordinary rendition took place on St Patrick's Day, during the Taoiseach's meeting with President Bush in the White House. As Deputies will be aware, on that occasion the Taoiseach raised with President Bush Ireland's well-known concerns with respect to this practice. The Taoiseach also raised the possibility of improving information sharing in relation to the passage of CIA flights through Irish airspace.

Contacts on this matter continue at official level. The US side have emphasised that the vast majority of CIA flights worldwide are in no way connected with extraordinary rendition, and re-iterated their categoric assurances, as confirmed by Secretary of State Rice to me in December, that prisoners have not been transferred through Irish territory, nor would they be, without our permission.