Ministerial waffle won’t divert attention from ‘torture flights’

FOREIGN Minister Dermot Ahern says the EU parliament committee engaged in political point-scoring in its report on US military flights through Shannon.

The minister is paid well enough by all of us to know Irish law. His Government has been given a list of the aircraft that have been involved in torture in other locations, so surely steps can be taken to fulfil Ireland’s obligations under the Criminal Justice (UN Convention Against Torture) Act.

Mr Ahern also lamented that the report was not ‘forward-looking’. Well, I’m sure it would be very well to brush the past under the carpet and waffle about ‘what might be done’, but that would be an easy way of avoiding the fact that the report highlighted the systematic failure of the Irish State to comply with the UN Convention Against Torture or Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.