The Government last night faced fresh criticism from the Labour Party over its refusal to routinely inspect aircraft transiting through Shannon airport.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore claimed there was no justification for not boarding aircraft when it was clear that extraordinary rendition flights had passed through European airports.
"Despite the compelling evidence of no less than three European investigations into 'rendition flights' through European territory, the Government refuses to authorise Garda inspections of suspect planes landing in Shannon," he said.
Mr Gilmore was addressing a meeting of the Philosophical Society in Trinity College Dublin last night.
"There are no prisoners on these planes, we are told, because the US says so. However, the Bush administration has made no secret of the use of rendition in its war on terror," he said.
"But what end does it serve Ireland to be potentially complicit in the kidnap, torture and indefinite detention of individuals wholly unconnected to her or her people? And is it worth it?"
Mr Gilmore contended that Ireland was failing in its duty to uphold human rights and the rule of law, and to guarantee that no person is routed to a torture chamber through Ireland.
"I could argue that torture does not work because forced confessions are unreliable. I could argue that oppressive tactics like rendition fail in the end because they create more new recruits than they will ever capture.
"The policy of 'highly coercive interrogation', or torture, by the British army in Northern Ireland in 1971 was the best recruitment drive the IRA could have hoped for. The number of terrorist bombings in Northern Ireland jumped from 150 in 1970 to over 1,300 in 1972," he said.
