Ireland is one of 11 EU states strongly criticised by a European Parliament committee investigating the transport and illegal detention of prisoners by the CIA.
The draft report expresses "serious concern" at the 147 stop-overs by CIA operated aircraft at Irish airports, many of which were coming from or directed to countries linked with extraordinary rendition. It highlights that several of the aircraft making stopovers in the Republic were involved in the rendition of seven people by the CIA as part of its "war on terror" after September 11th, 2001.
A spokesman for Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said last night that he was "livid" at the publication of the report two days before he is due to address the European Parliament committee on the issue.
The spokesman said Mr Ahern is "fuming" at the way the committee has conducted its business and said "at no stage" has any prisoner been rendered through Ireland. "It is absolutely bizarre that we would have the report of the findings of the committee about Ireland two days before the Minister is due to attend committee hearings. He will still go to the hearings and he will give a full and honest account of Ireland's position on this."
One of the 147 flights referred to in the EU report going back to 2001 detailed the movement of an aircraft owned by the Boston Red Sox baseball team. The route it took was more akin to a golfing holiday than anything more sinister, the spokesman said.
"This is more a case of extraordinary apparition rather than extraordinary rendition."
The EU report says aircraft that stopped off in Ireland were involved in the rendition of Agiza, El Zari, Al Rawi, El Banna, Britel, El Masri, Binyam. These individuals were secretly transported by the US secret service and some were later tortured in prisons outside Europe, such as Egypt. There is no evidence in the report to suggest they were ever transported through Irish airports but it says Germany, Italy, Sweden, Bosnia and Macedonia did facilitate rendition.
The draft report was presented to the committee after the appearance and testimony yesterday of the chairman of the Irish Human Rights Commission, Dr Maurice Manning. He told the committee that the Government was not complying with its legal obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to set up a random inspection regime to ensure rendition was not taking place.
He said the Government should not simply rely on US diplomatic assurances but instead should agree a legally enforceable agreement with the US and investigate the matter of renditions.