Labour renews call to search CIA flights through Shannon

The Labour party has demanded a re-think by the Government on how to deal with the suspected practise of extraordinary rendition flights passing through Shannon.

It was revealed today that then-Taoiseach Sean Lemass authorised searches of Cuban and Czech aircraft passing through during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

The information collected during inspections was then passed on to the US authorities.

Labour's human rights spokesperson Joe Costello believes the CIA programme is still in operation and must be brought to an end, and should be dealt with by the government.

“I think that it is appropriate at this moment in time that the Irish Government would now assure that all steps were taken to ensure that no such prisoners would be taken abroad through Irish ports, and that they would instigate searches as they had done almost a half-century ago,” he said.