At Ministerial level there is ongoing contact as required with EU colleagues both in the context of European Defence and Security and other matters. In addition to these bilateral contacts, two official meetings of EU Defence Ministers are held during each six month EU Presidency. The most recent meeting of Foreign Affairs and Defence Ministers took place in Luxembourg on 18 April 2016. Discussions at the meeting covered a wide range of European Defence and Security issues and associated challenges.
I am also kept fully appraised of issues arising from meetings which officials from my Department attend in the area of European Defence and Security. As with the formulation of any policy, best practice and lessons learnt in other jurisdictions will always inform EU policy formulation to ensure that it is robust, coherent and meets the needs of Member States. In relation to International Terrorism issues at EU level, this is primarily a matter for Justice and Interior ministers under the Justice and Home Affairs umbrella. Within this State, primary responsibility for the internal security of the State rests with the Department of Justice and Equality and An Garda Síochána. In that regard, among the roles assigned to the Defence Forces in the White Paper on Defence is the provision of Aid to the Civil Power (ATCP) which, in practice, means to provide assistance and support to An Garda Síochána when requested to do so. There is ongoing and close liaison between An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces regarding security matters, including ATCP deployments and a wide variety of military training activities are specifically designed to counter or respond to possible security emergencies. Regular coordination and liaison meetings also take place between the Defence Forces and An Garda Síochána in relation to ATCP issues. It is my priority as Minister for Defence to ensure that the operational capacity of the Defence Forces is maintained to the greatest extent possible.
As the Deputy will be aware, the previous Minister for Defence attended the meeting of Foreign Affairs and Defence Ministers that took place in Brussels on 17 November 2015 at which my French colleague, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drein, invoked Article 42.7 of the Treaty on European Union, following the tragic events in Paris on 13 November last.
Following that invocation there was liaison between officials from my Department and French authorities at which various options for how Ireland could be of assistance were explored. One option explored was examining what support Ireland would be able to offer to UN mandated missions which suffered gaps as a result of France or other nations withdrawing forces to undertake alternative operations. The outcome to the French request for support was the enhancement of our current deployment to the EU Training Mission in Mali, to which 10 members of the Permanent Defence Force were previously deployed. This figure will now be increased to 18. The issue of also providing support to the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA is being kept under review.
