Regular contact with home helps to sustain the high morale of our personnel serving overseas and facilitating communication with home is seen as a priority.
All personnel serving overseas are entitled to one free five minute 'phone call per month. Special arrangements are provided in relation to duration of calls for personnel serving on isolated missions or in places where there is no local telecommunications infrastructure.
In the case of personnel serving with Unifil, the United Nations provides free postal facilities to Ireland for letters and small parcels. Each person is allowed five aerogrammes home per week. For personnel serving with Untaet in East Timor, arrangements have been made to provide for five free airmail letters per week per person. These arrangements cater for the majority of personnel serving with overseas missions.
In the event of emergency domestic situations arising for personnel serving overseas, action is taken to notify the personnel involved without delay. A humanitarian and compassionate approach is adopted in cases where personnel may require to be repatriated. In the past twelve months, 89 personnel from five overseas missions have been repatriated and a total of 224 personnel from seven overseas missions have been repatriated in the last three years.