Vol. 538 No. 5
16 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for Defence if he will consider amending the Defence Acts to remove any possible degree of ambiguity as to whether the approval of the Oireachtas is required to sanction the participation of an Irish contingent in the rapid reaction force; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18304/01]
Discussions took place between my Department, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the Attorney General in the context of last November's decision by the Government to authorise commitment by Ireland of up to 850 members of the Defence Forces to the EU headline goal. The advice at that time was that Ireland's political commitment to the EU headline goal did not give rise to any requirement to amend existing legislation. This remains the position.
As regards any potential EU Petersberg Tasks operation, I reiterate the policy of the Government that Ireland will approach each mission on a case by case basis and only participate in operations authorised by the UN as comprehended by the appropriate legislation, that is, the Defence Act, 1954, the Defence (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 1960 and the Defence (Amendment) Act, 1993. This means that each mission will require the approval of the Government and this House.
Will the Minister reconfirm the understanding that the rapid reaction force is regarded by the State as an integral part of European security and defence policy? Can he indicate to the House whether he envisages members of the Defence Forces engaging, in the future, in joint training exercises with other European Union states' defence forces which participate in the rapid reaction force? Does he envisage such training taking place outside Ireland? Has he considered whether or not there is a need for new legislation to ensure that where such training exercises take place there are no legal difficulties in their doing so?
The Government has decided to commit forces to the rapid reaction force which will carry out peacekeeping, humanitarian and crisis management tasks for the European Union. We will only operate under existing legislation under mandate from the UN. It is too early to translate what is involved into whether the necessity will arise for training exercises to be conducted abroad. If a request were to come for that to happen we might have to look at the legislative situation. The advice of the Attorney General, which I feel will be maintained, is that because of the strict nature of where Ireland stands in these matters – on the UN peacekeeping mandate and under our own Defence Acts – it is not likely there will be any change. Nevertheless some things must be continually checked, depending on the momentum at the time.
The Minister is aware that as part of the new civilian rapid reaction mechanism a civil strategy on conflict management was accepted on 26 February last as a proposal from Commissioner Patten. Can the Minister indicate the extent to which we are participating in this and how he envisages this aspect of the rapid reaction proposal will work in practice?
We have to look at peacekeeping and crisis management in a wider context. Deputies well appreciate the policing character of it and know that members of the Garda have gone to various places. Democratisation, local authority, systems of planning, provision of services and charges and general management seem to have been lost sight of in the past. We need to take account of the wider needs of people. We create dependency if we do not empower people to master their destiny subsequent to the withdrawal of troops. The mechanism must be of a wider character. It must contain a military component as well as civil, policing, judicial and other services. We must look at the broader picture of what is needed to help communities who are experiencing strife.
Written Answers follow Adjournment Debate.
