Defence Forces Training

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 April 2015

Thursday, 23 April 2015

Questions (100)

Ruth Coppinger

Question:

100. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Defence further to Parliamentary Question No. 318 of 15 April 2015, the training courses the military personnel of other states received here from the Defence Forces in the years 2011 to 2014, that is Israel, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, Greece, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, Chad, and Turkey; and the number of military personnel from each of those States that received training here in that time. [16067/15]

Written answers

Minister for Defence

The table below contains details of the courses and numbers of military personnel from the specified countries that have taken part in military training in Ireland between 2011 and 2014.

Country	Course	Number of Personnel
Israel	International Counter Improvised Explosive Device/Improvised Explosive Device Disposal (CIED/IEDD) Course	1
Colombia	UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Surge Training*	1
Sri Lanka	UN OCHA Surge Training	1
Nigeria	International Military Police Course	2
Russia	International Human Rights Course	1
	International Civilian Military Relations Course	1
	Operational IEDD Course	2
Singapore	International Human Rights Course	1
United States of America	Command and Staff Course	5
	International Human Rights Course	1
	International Civilian Military Relations Course	3
	International Military Police Course	2
	International CIED/IEDD Course	2
	Operational IEDD Course	3
United Kingdom	International Civil Military Cooperation Course	4
	Humanitarian Assistance Course	12
	International Civilian Military Relations Course	3
	International Military Police Course	7
	Ground Sign Awareness Course**	4
France	International Civil Military Cooperation Course	6
	International Human Rights Course	4
	UN OCHA Surge Training	1
	Cadet Training	6
	Homemade Explosives Course	1
Greece	International Civil Military Cooperation Course	1
	International Human Rights Course	2
	International Military Police Course	2
	Combat Tracking Instructors Course	1
Ethiopia	UN OCHA Surge Training	1
UAE	Operational IEDD Course	2
Chad	UN OCHA Surge Training	1
Turkey	Operational IEDD Course	2
Total		86

* In a sudden-onset natural disaster or a rapidly deteriorating on-going crisis, OCHA and its humanitarian partners have several tools to quickly enhance the response and coordination capacity in a country. It has various surge rosters to send additional staff for the first weeks of an emergency, which may then be replaced by longer-term personnel. Surge staff comes from headquarters, regional and country offices, external rosters and partner organisations.

** Ground Sign Awareness is a Counter IED observation skill defined as the ability to identify SIGN (any evidence of change from the natural state that is inflicted upon the environment by the passage of Human, Animal or Machinery) and based on this make sound interpretations and deductions.