The Defence Forces have no responsibility to search foreign military aircraft that land at Shannon Airport, Minister of State Paul Kehoe has said. He was responding to Independent TD Mick Wallace, who gave the details of a US government jet, which he said had previously been used in CIA rendition flights.

It was at Shannon Airport, Mr Wallace said, and reports showed "it left Washington on the same night that US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong, with the hope of picking him up in the event Russia did not grant him asylum".

Mr Wallace asked if the Minister agreed that “simply relying on diplomatic assurances from the US with regard to rendition flights is not sufficient to comply with the State’s obligations” to prevent torture and ill-treatment.

Mr Kehoe told him the Defence Forces only provided assistance to the Garda Síochána.

He said there were 324 Defence Force security operations at the airport in 2013, compared to 381 in 2012 and 327 in 2011.