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.