The Government is seeking "legal clarity" on whether a US flight carrying deportees to South Sudan which stopped at Shannon Airport broke Irish laws.
The New York Times reported that a plane carrying eight deportees, in violation of a court order by a federal judge in Boston, stopped at the Co Clare airport this week.
The paper said flight tracking data shows that a privately-owned Gulfstream jet stopped in Ireland for two hours on Tuesday en route to Djibouti after leaving an airport in Harlingen, Texas.
The flight was in contravention of a ruling by a US District Judge. The judge had barred the US administration from deporting people to countries that were not their own without giving them enough time to object.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the US Department of Homeland Security, said that the flight contained criminals who had committed serious crimes and criticised Judge Brian Murphy for trying to "bring them back" to America.
It is understood that the deportees were from Vietnam, Cuba, Myanmar, Laos and Mexico.
“We conducted a deportation flight from Texas to remove some of the most barbaric violent individuals illegally in the United States. No country on Earth wanted to accept them because their crimes are so monstrous and barbaric. Every single one of them was convicted of a heinous crime — murder, rape, child rape.”
Judge Murphy had said that the deportation was in contravention of an earlier order. Lawyers for those being deported had argued that they were being sent to South Sudan instead of their home countries and that this was illegal.
On Thursday, Tánaiste and foreign affairs minister Simon Harris said he was trying to "get on top of" the situation.
“I’m trying to establish the facts on this now in real time, because I’m aware of the US media reports,” Mr Harris told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
“We’ve been very active, from an Irish embassy point of view, in providing consular support to citizens who have been caught up in these stronger, for want of a diplomatic phrase, stronger enforcement policies around migration.
“I have no reason to believe that the procedures in place for the use of Irish airports by foreign aircraft has been breached by the United States, but I am seeking more information from my department this morning on this matter.”
Asked if Ireland was complicit in illegal US deportations, he said: “I want to get legal clarity in relation to this before speaking with great certainty, because of the seriousness of the matter.
“But I think complying with US law is obviously a matter for the US administration. Complying with our own laws is obviously a matter for the Irish state and the Irish government.
“So let me try and establish more in relation to this, as my department is.
“There are very clear rules in relation to flights that can and can’t stop over in Shannon and what they must do and not do, and we need to see whether this was in compliance with that.
“This is a story that’s only emerged in US media, so I’m trying to get on top of it now.”
US flights stopping off at Shannon Airport to refuel have long been an issue of contention, as politicians and activists raise concerns that it makes Ireland complicit in US military actions.
Protests have been held at the airport over the Iraq War, Western intervention in Syria, and more recently over US support for Israel during the war on Gaza.
In recent months, there have been reports that flights carrying munitions to weapons manufacturers and contractors in Israel have travelled through Irish airspace.
Permission is needed from the transport minister to carry munitions over Ireland.
Mr Harris has said he does not believe that weapons are being flown through Irish airspace to Israel, but he said more international co-operation was needed to find out what is being flown above Ireland.
