Vol. 404 No. 6
12 Mr. McCartan asked the Taoiseach the steps which have been taken to ensure the safety of Irish personnel serving with UNIFIL, in view of the outbreak of war in the Middle East; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
13 Mr. Bell asked the Taoiseach if he will outline the contingency plans his Department have for the withdrawal of troops from Lebanon in the event of full scale war developing between Iraq and Israel; the transport arrangements which have been arranged in relation to any such evacuation; the stage at which any such decision will be made; if there have been consultations in this regard with the Chief of Staff and the General Staff; if any such evacuation or withdrawal will include the withdrawal of equipment; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 and 13 together.
I would refer the Deputy to columns 646 and 647 of the Official Report containing my statement to the House on 18 January 1991, regarding the safety of Irish military personnel and their dependants in the Middle East.
Nuclear, biological and chemical protective clothing, including respirators, has been issued to all members of the Permanent Defence Force serving with UNIFIL. In addition one thousand chemical detector sets have been forwarded to the mission area.
There are no proposals to evacuate personnel from the mission area at present but an evacuation plan has been drawn up by UNIFIL headquarters as a contingency measure. Evacuation arrangements would be administered by the United Nations. In the interests of security, and as the contingency plan has been drawn up and would be implemented, should the need arise, by the United Nations, it would be inappropriate to disclose details of it. Nationally owned equipment would be catered for in the evacuation plan.
The operational situation in relation to all Irish personnel in the area continues to be closely monitored.
Given that the question was prompted by somewhat unfortunate events that have developed since he last made a statement in the House to which he refers, namely, the shelling by Palestinians in South Lebanon of the Israeli installations, has the Taoiseach's monitoring borne those developments in mind and have the plans for any evacuation been updated, added to or improved?
It is not for me to decide on the plans. These are a matter for the UN headquarters. I am quite certain that the situation is constantly monitored and whatever is necessary in the way of provisions or updating of the plans is done.
The Taoiseach has answered this question in some detail and I thank him for that but let me ask him is it, in effect, the UN who will decide at what stage Irish troops will be withdrawn or will it be the Government, the Taoiseach or the Minister for Defence in consultation with the Army?
The final decision will be ours because the contingent is there by permission of the Government, but we will of course be advised by the UN headquarters as to the situation.
