Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has challenged the authors of the Council of Europe report on international renditions to produce any evidence which showed that Shannon airport had been used for rendition flights, or that the Government had colluded with the United States on the issue.
Ireland was one of 14 countries which the report, by Swiss senator Dick Marti, said could be accused of collusion over rendition flights. This was based on records which showed that CIA-operated aircraft suspected of use in rendition flights had landed at Shannon airport on a number of occasions.
Speaking to journalists yesterday, Mr Ahern said that the idea "that there was collusion by the Irish Government on this issue is just totally false".
"I reject that totally and if Mr Marti or any of his people have any evidence on that, they should produce it," he said.
The Government is resisting calls from the Opposition, human rights groups, and the chairman of the Human Rights Commission, Dr Maurice Manning, calling for an inspection system for suspect flights that land at Irish airports.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern again reiterated the Government's position that it had received categorical assurances from the US government that Shannon airport had not been used for rendition flights. He told RTÉ's Morning Ireland the Government accepted this assurance, and failure to accept that assurance "would be regarded very much as an aggressive attitude, particularly when we have no evidence".
He said that the Government could not direct gardaí to investigate or inspect suspect planes, although they did have powers to do so if they believed a criminal offence was being committed. The Garda Press Office yesterday confirmed that a number of Garda investigations had taken place on foot of complaints and that a number of files had been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Gardaí found no evidence relating to rendition flights, although no inspections of aircraft took place during the investigations.
The Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties have all rejected this position, saying there was a legal obligation under international human rights legislation to ensure Ireland was not being used as part of a network for renditions.