Defence agreements - Public has a right to know of US pacts

WHEN international agreements are signed between sovereign nations, there should be no question of the public being kept in the dark.

That makes all the more serious Labour’s claim that two international defence agreements between this country and the US have not been revealed to Dáil Éireann.

Sceptics will be slow to accept bland assurances from the Department of Foreign Affairs that the treaties are purely administrative and therefore not covered by the Constitution. However, they would be laid before the Dáil.

Revelations that two bilateral defence accords had recently been agreed came from the US State Department website.

Apparently, one concerns security measures for protection of classified information while the other gives Irish troops in Kosovo access to US facilities.

Given allegations that Shannon Airport was used for America’s murky practice of ‘extraordinary rendition’ - the illegal transfer of people for interrogation - nothing short of a full explanation will suffice from Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern of exactly what the latest agreements involve.

The public has a right to know.