Madam, - How intriguing! The Government of Ireland is to ask the incoming US administration to discontinue an activity the Irish Government has hitherto denied the US practised ("Renditions flights promise welcomed", The Irish Times, November 3rd).
How does Dermot Ahern square this particular circle? Does he now admit he lied to us on the topic? Or has some evidence come to light that has convinced him? And does he accept that those of us who protested at our representatives' supine attitude were justified and our suspicions better-founded than his own empty reassurances?
And what does it mean for future trust between our countries, since the inescapable conclusion must be that the outgoing US administration lied to a friendly (indeed, too-friendly) government? - Yours, etc,
Madam, - There is a palpable irony in the Government's renewed commitment to international human rights at a time when it has all but destroyed the domestic infrastructure in place to protect equality and human rights.
How can it seriously talk about "taking human rights seriously" while cutting the Equality Authority's budget by 43 per cent and fast-tracking its decentralisation at a time when that particular doomed Government policy has been halted for everyone else, as well as cutting the already minuscule budget of the Irish Human Rights Commission by 24 per cent?.
While the Government's decision to make a direct approach to the United States on extraordinary rendition, Guantánamo Bay and the use of torture is welcome, it rings hollow given its moves to silence the very bodies which doggedly pursued this issue when it mattered. - Yours, etc,