Vol. 546 No. 5
20 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the proposals recently approved by the Government for an increase in the number of Garda personnel to be made available for peace-keeping duties; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32090/01]
The Government recently approved proposals to increase the maximum number of members of the Garda Síochána who can, at any given time, be deployed on international police peace-keeping missions from 60 to 80 in the context of the EU's development of a crisis management capability. Ireland has a long established reputation in the area of international police peacekeeping missions and has much to contribute to EU developments in this area. The Garda Síochána has been involved in international peacekeeping missions since 1989. These have involved UN missions for the most part but gardaí have also participated in missions organised by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe – OSCE and in monitoring missions organised by the EU. The practice since 1994 has been that not more than 60 members have been released for such duties at any one time.
EU member states have committed themselves at successive European Council meetings to building a European security and defence policy capable of reinforcing the Union's external action through the development of a conflict prevention and crisis management capability, including civilian aspects. In this regard, they have agreed that member states should, by 2003, be able to provide up to 5,000 police officers for international missions across the range of conflict prevention and crisis management operations. In the above context, on 19/20 November 2001, a police commitment conference took place in Brussels, at which member states announced that the 5,000 target had been reached.
