Rendition claims tarnishing airport: Ahern

Shannon Airport should not be tarnished abroad with allegations that terrorist hostages are passing through it, the Taoiseach today told the Dáil.

Bertie Ahern was responding to calls by Labour leader Eamon Gilmore to implement the recommendations of yesterday’s report on the issue by the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC).

Declaring that US diplomatic assurances on the issue are not enough, the IHRC called for all flights to be inspected at Shannon and for a dedicated garda station at the Mid-West hub.

But Mr Ahern told the Dáil: “There is an issue here about highlighting Shannon when there is absolutely no evidence of anything to do with extraordinary rendition.

“Why put Shannon airport up on the international map as somewhere were something is happening where several reports have now examined and found there is no validation for that whatsoever?”

The Shannon region has been hit by job losses in the wake of the decision in August by Aer Lingus to switch Heathrow flights to its new Belfast hub.

But Mr Gilmore claimed the Government was ignoring the findings of a statutory human rights agency it established itself in 2001.

“Extraordinary rendition is the process whereby the CIA kidnap citizens of European countries off the streets of their own cities, bundle them into a car, take them to an airport, and fly them to a country in Africa or the Middle East where they are tortured,” he told TDs.

But Mr Ahern explained that anybody with credible evidence of extraordinary rendition should report it to the Gardaí. A recent complaint led to the search of a plane which found a group of golfers on their way to Ballybunion.

But Mr Gilmore said: “If you have that kind of a daft position, it’s no wonder you end up finding golfers on the plane.”

The Taoiseach said the Departments of Transport and Foreign Affairs would study the IHRC recommendations but he added that no other European country had such an inspection regime in place.

“Going above what anybody else is doing for an airport where there is not a scintilla of evidence that anything has ever happened would not be a good idea,” Mr Ahern said.

Mr Ahern also claimed that the IHRC report failed to do justice to the Government’s efforts on the extraordinary rendition issue at home and abroad.

Yesterday’s report, Extraordinary Rendition: A Review of Ireland’s Human Rights Obligations declared that US diplomatic assurances are no longer sufficient to satisfy Ireland’s human rights obligations.

Commitments on the issue in the Programme for Government agreed by the Coalition parties must be fully implemented, the watchdog said.