I thank the Chair and I apologise to the committee for the reading of a third submission into the record today. The Department is undergoing a process of seeking approval for a memorandum of understanding regarding Ireland's proposed participation in the German battle group of 2016. I will now put some facts into the record for the reasons behind this proposal. The motion is:
That Dáil Éireann approves Ireland’s accession to the memorandum of understanding concerning the principles for the establishment and operation of a battle group to be made available to the European Union in the second half of 2016.
In commending the motion I will now outline the background to Ireland's participation in the German battle group. The ambition of the EU is to be able to respond rapidly to emerging crises. This is a key objective in the continued development of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. In the Headline Goal 2010, the EU set itself the objective of being able "to respond with rapid and decisive action applying a fully coherent approach to the whole spectrum of crisis management operations covered by the Treaty on the European Union". This is a mouthful but it is eurospeak for saying that we need to have the capacity to respond to a crisis if and when it happens. A key element of the Headline Goal 2010 is the capability to deploy forces at high readiness, broadly based on the battle groups concept.
The purpose of the EU battle groups is to undertake operations as outlined in the Amsterdam treaty. These operations, known as Petersberg Tasks, include humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeeping tasks and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking. In the Lisbon treaty these tasks were expanded to include joint disarmament operations, military advice and assistance tasks in supporting the reform and restructuring of security services and legal institutions in fragile states, conflict prevention and post-conflict stabilisation.
A central tenet of Irish foreign policy is support for the multilateral system of collective security represented by the United Nations. In this regard, Ireland has worked to uphold the primary role of the Security Council in the maintenance of international peace and security. This commitment has found expression in Ireland’s longstanding tradition of participation in UN peacekeeping operations. Participation in EU battle groups represents another means for Ireland to express our commitment to the UN and its principles.
The Defence Forces contribution to this battle group will involve a Recce-ISTAR company together with staff posts at both the operational and force headquarters. Recce is an abbreviation of reconnaissance and ISTAR is a military term meaning intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance. The role of a Recce-ISTAR company is to operate in a forward position to generate and deliver specific information and intelligence to decision makers in support of the planning and conduct of operations.
The total number of Defence Forces personnel involved in this battle group will be approximately 175. This level of resource commitment will only arise should the battle group be deployed to undertake an operation and should Ireland agree to participate, and if we agree to participate the triple lock will have to apply. The commitment in terms of personnel leading up to and during the stand-by period, where the battle group has not been mobilised to undertake an operation, will be eight officers and two NCOs. These will be deployed to battle group headquarters in Strasbourg and engaged in training and planning activities.
The German Battle Group Memorandum of Understanding is an agreement between the participants comprising the battle group, namely, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Croatia, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, which sets out principles regarding to the operation, deployment and management of the German battle group.
Sections 1 to 4, inclusive, deal with the definitions and reference documents that are applicable to this memorandum of understanding. They define Germany as the framework nation and Austria as the logistic lead nation and broadly outline the purpose of the memorandum of understanding.
Sections 5 to 8, inclusive, deal with the consultation process, exercise, training, certification and operation of the battle group. Most battle group training will take place in the contributing member states. Irish troops will be mainly trained here in Ireland. That said, a joint training exercise with other battle group elements will also take place in the east of Germany at some point. Approximately 170 Defence Forces personnel will be required to deploy to Germany for this exercise, which is scheduled to take place from 18 to 29 April 2016. The estimated cost of participation in this certification exercise will be in the region of €955,000 to take account of transportation of equipment and the provision of food, fuel and other services in Germany.
One important issue to note is that each battle group participant retains the right to deploy or not to deploy its forces, irrespective of an EU decision to launch a battle group operation. Equally, each battle group participant retains the sovereign right to withdraw its contingent at any time. The command of each contingent remains under national control, with operational control delegated to the operational commander. As such, any deployment of the Irish contribution as part of the German battle group will still be subject to the triple lock, which is a UN mandate, Government and Dáil approval, and this will remain unaffected by Ireland signing the memorandum of understanding.
Sections 9 to 13, inclusive, outline the arrangements in terms of financing, logistics, classified information, the status of forces and the issue of claims and liabilities. When a battle group participant is within the territory of another participant, the issues of jurisdiction and discipline and claims and liabilities of forces will be dealt with in accordance with the NATO Partnership for Peace Status of Forces Agreement, PfP SOFA.
A status of forces agreement is an agreement on the status of personnel engaged on overseas training and operations, whereby the host country agrees to extend certain rights and privileges to such personnel. These include arrangements regarding jurisdiction in respect of certain crimes, powers of military police, enforcement of discipline by the superiors of the relevant personnel and determination of liability for damage to the property of third parties.
While all the other German battle group participants have signed the NATO PfP SOFA, Ireland has not yet done so. We have previously acceded to the relevant provisions of the SOFA, generally through an exchange of letters with the European Union, NATO or lead framework nations for any operation in which we have participated. It is intended to engage in a similar exchange of letters in relation to these matters in respect of our participation in the German battle group. It should be noted that the immunities and privileges provided for in the SOFA, including those to which Ireland will accede through an exchange of letters, will not apply within Ireland. SOFAs respect the principle of territorial sovereignty and given that there is a constitutional impediment to foreign forces being deployed in the State under their own command structures, effectively the terms of the SOFA are of no effect within the State, as no troops can be so deployed.
Sections 14 to 16, inclusive, deal with the process of participation of additional states in the battle group, the timelines for coming into effect and termination of the memorandum of understanding, and the process for dispute resolution. The terms of the memorandum of understanding are similar to those that Ireland has previously acceded to for the 2008, 2011 and 2015 Nordic battle groups, as well as the 2012 Austro-German battle group.
While no battle group has deployed to date, the EU battle group concept has yielded many benefits to developing improved interoperability between the Defence Forces and the forces of other EU member states. The battle group has also enabled the EU to develop its decision-making processes for rapid deployment on crisis management operations.
The purpose of battle groups is, very simply, to enable the Union to be more effective in contributing to international peace and security in support of the United Nations by putting in place a rapid response capability. In this regard, it is worth again recalling the strong support of the United Nations for the EU’s efforts in this regard. During his recent visit to Ireland in May this year, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon commented positively on the EU-UN relationship and the importance of having a rapid response capacity.
Ireland’s active engagement in EU battle groups enhances our capacity to influence the ongoing development and evolution of the rapid response capacity of the European Union, in particular, the role battle groups can play in reinforcing and acting as a strategic reserve for UN blue-hat operations. Active engagement by Ireland across the range of activities under the Union’s Common Security and Defence Policy means that Ireland can help shape this policy in a manner which is consistent with our values and our support of multilateralism and for the United Nations.
Ireland’s participation in battle groups supports the development of rapid deployment skills and capabilities within the Defence Forces, together with improved interoperability with our partners. It also enhances Ireland’s credibility as a provider of professional and effective military forces for crisis management operations. Finally, it reinforces our standing and capacity to influence the ongoing development of the Union’s Common Security and Defence Policy in support of international peace and security and the UN.
The term "battle groups" is an unfortunate one because it conjures an image of an army going to war. That is not what the UN battle groups concept is all about. It is about trying to create an absence of war and intervene before conflicts arise, or while conflicts are under way, to try to protect civilians, separate warring parties and create peace and stabilisation in parts of the world that desperately need assistance to do that. They have not been deployed yet even though they have been around for quite some time. I suspect that may change. Many countries are losing patience with spending money, training and preparing and not actually deploying that resource.
What Ireland is committing to, and which I hope the committee will give its support to, is to be part of that process, which is about Europe using its influence and resources to help create stabilisation in post-conflict situations or to help conflict in the first place. It makes a lot of sense that, as a country that has a deep history in peacekeeping, we would be part of European efforts in that regard. I hope the committee will be able to support what we are proposing to do next year to be part of a German-led battle group for the second half of next year.
