European Parliament president Josep Borrell yesterday strongly defended the conduct of the institution against recent complaints by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern.
The Minister had expressed outrage that a draft report which contained criticism of Ireland over CIA "rendition" flights had been released before he had a chance to make the Government's case to the committee members at a meeting scheduled to take place in Brussels yesterday.
Speaking in Dublin after an address to the Forum on Europe yesterday morning, Mr Borrell told The Irish Times that it was normal practice for committee rapporteurs to release a draft report about an issue, in advance of the final document.
"This is not the report of the committee. It is the draft report of the rapporteur, which was scheduled to be delivered on that day, because we have a schedule to fulfil. There is almost no reference to Ireland, just a standard one.
"There will be a lot of amendments and a whole procedure which can be used in order to take account of what the Minister has to say today in the committee." He added: "This is normal procedure and why the Minister has been unable to go [in front of the committee] before, I don't know, but everybody knew what the schedule was."
He had not met the Minister yesterday but would be "happy" to meet Mr Ahern today when president Borrell is due to visit Dundalk.
Meanwhile, Labour spokesman for foreign affairs Michael D Higgins said Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had taken his "capacity for assuming naivety to a new level" in accepting US president George Bush's assurances that no prisoners were being illegally transported through Ireland.
Mr Higgins was referring to Mr Ahern's comments that he had been "assured" by the "great president Bush" that Ireland was never a base, a hub or a destination for rendition flights.