Fianna Fáil MEP Eoin Ryan says a EU investigation into alleged CIA rendition flights has found no evidence that Irish airports were used to transport US prisoners.
It found the agency conducted more than 1,000 undeclared flights over European territory since the September 11th attacks in 2001, with some carrying suspected terrorists to countries where they could face torture.
What the report reveals is that "unfortunately" the practice of rendition has taken place, Mr Ryan said.
"The report shows that Poland, Romania, Bosnia, Macedonia and Uzbekistan have facilitated flights and also that in Italy, Sweden and Bosnia, the authorities must have known that this was happening within their country," he said.
The only mention of Ireland in the report comes in an addendum to the case of an Egyptian man who alleges he was abducted in Italy in 2002 and then flown to Germany en route to Cairo.
After the man was taken into custody in Egypt, the plane is said to returned to Washington, refuelling at Shannon on the way.
Mr Ryan said he believed Ireland was in the clear because even if the plane had been boarded and searched at Shannon there was no prisoner on board.
"It is impossible for the authorities to say that if a plane lands anywhere in Ireland that that plane took prisoners from one place to the other. . . . I believe that the report shows there is no evidence against Ireland," he said.
But Labour MEP Pronisias De Rossa disputed Mr Ryan's reading of the report. "It's quite extraordinary that we seem to be turning a blind eye to the fact that Shannon is being used to facilitate these flights," he said.
"The question mark arises why is a gulf stream jet with the capacity to fly direct from Germany to Cairo diverting to Shannon and sitting there for nine hours on the tarmac and then taking off for Washington nine hours later."
"There are serious questions to be asked and to be answered by the Irish Government," he said.
In the report, the European Parliament's committee said suspects were often transported across Europe by the same planes and groups of people working for the CIA.
The committee said they had documented a series of incidents in which terror suspects were kidnapped by the CIA in Europe, or handed over to the agency by European officials in violation of human rights treaties.
Italian MEP Giovanni Claudio Fava, who drafted the report, said: "After 9/11, within the framework of the fight against terrorism, the violation of human and fundamental rights was not isolated or an excessive measure confined to a short period of time, but rather a widespread regular practice in which the majority of European countries were involved."
Additional reporting by PA
