Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 12 Dec 2002

Vol. 559 No. 3

Written Answers. - Overseas Missions.

Trevor Sargent

Ceist:

6 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Defence the reason Ireland's contribution of troops to Eritrea, as part of the UN mission, UNMEE, is ending in 2003; his views on whether Ireland's contribution to UN missions, in general, and to UN missions outside of Europe, specifically, will then be greatly diminished; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26090/02]

John Gormley

Ceist:

57 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Defence the reason Ireland's contribution of troops to Eritrea, as part of the UN mission, UNMEE, is ending in 2003; his views on the fact that Ireland's contribution to UN missions, in general, and to UN missions outside of Europe, specifically, will then be greatly diminished; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26217/02]

Minister for Defence (Mr. M. Smith)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 and 57 together.

Ireland's commitment to collective security is pursued through the UN, which has the primary role to play in the maintenance of international peace and security. Ireland has a long record of participation in UN-international peacekeeping, monitoring and observer missions and the policy is to continue with involvement in such international missions in the cause of world peace. In this regard, Deputies will be aware that participation in any overseas mission is subject to the existence of a UN Mandate.

In October, 1998, Ireland signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations on the UN standby arrangements system, UNSAS. Ireland offered, through UNSAS, to provide up to 850 military personnel for overseas service at any one time to meet UN and other peace support, and humanitarian commitments.

The Defence Forces are currently training and developing their capabilities in order to be in a position to rapidly respond to any demand from the UN which may arise in the context of our commitment to UNSAS. To achieve the required levels of skills and competencies, it is important that Ireland contributes forces to missions which provide opportunities, in theatre, for exercising the requisite range of skills for different types of operations and that it has an agreed entry and exit strategy for each mission.

With regard to the deployment of a Defence Forces contingent to the United Nations mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, UNMEE, the UN formally invited Ireland to contribute a guard and administration company to serve with UNMEE at the Force headquarters in Asmara, Eritrea, with effect from 11 December, 2001, for a minimum period of 12 months. On 18 July, 2001, the Government authorised, subject to the approval of the Dáil, the despatch of a contingent of the Permanent Defence Force for service with UNMEE. On 26 October 2001, Dáil Éireann approved the despatch of the contingent comprising 209 Defence Forces personnel. It was always intended that Ireland would only undertake a small number of rotations in UNMEE and, hence, we have signalled our planned withdrawal from UNMEE for June 2003.

The total number of Defence Forces personnel serving overseas is 486, of whom 445 are currently serving on UN missions. Full details are as listed in the following tabular statement. The withdrawal from UNMEE will result in an overall reduction in the numbers deployed on overseas missions, if we do not increase our commitment on other missions or if we do not deploy to new missions. However, such fluctuations are not unusual, but rather are a natural consequence of commitments coming to an end. New missions will arise from time to time. In addition, other troop contributing countries may reconfigure their contingents, resulting in requests for Ireland to increase its contribution to a particular mission. In this regard, as Deputies will be aware, I have recently signalled that we will be changing the composition of our forces in the UN mandated missions in KFOR and SFOR from a transport company and MP company respectively to a light infantry company in KFOR of up to 250 personnel, which is a more appropriate configuration at this time, given our UNSAS commitment and represents an overall increase in our commitment to this mission of 75 personnel.

Members of the Permanent Defence Force serving overseas with effect from 10 December, 2002

1.	UN Missions
	(i)	UNIFTL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon)	7
	(ii)	UNTSO (United Nations truce supervision organisation) – Israel, Syria and Lebanon	13
	(iii)	UNFICYP (United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus)	6
	(iv)	UNIKOM (United Nations Iraq Kuwait observer mission)	6
	(v)	MYNURSO (United Nations mission for the referendum in Western Sahara)	3
	(vi)	UNMIK (United Nations interim administration mission in Kosovo)	3
	(vii)	UNMOP (United Nations mission of observers in Prevlaka)	1
	(viii)	UNMISET (United Nations mission of support in East Timor)	4
	(ix)	UNMEE (United Nations mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea)	219
	(x)	MONUC (United Nations mission in Democratic Republic of the Congo)	2
	UN Mandated Missions
	(xi)	SFOR Stabilisation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina – SFOR HQ Sarajevo	61
	(xii)	KFOR International Security Presence in Kosovo	113
	(xiii)	ISAF International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan	7
	Total Number of Personnel Serving with UN Missions			445
2.	EU Mission
	European Union Monitor Mission (EUMM) to the former Yugoslavia			14
3.	Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
	(i)	OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina	3
	(ii)	OSCE Mission in Croatia	1
	(iii)	OSCE Mission in Kosovo	1
	(iv)	OSCE Presence in Albania	1
	(v)	OSCE Mission in FRY	2
	(vi)	OSCE Mission in Macedonia	1
	(vii)	OSCE Mission in Georgia	2
	(viii)	Staff Officer, higher level planning group, Vienna	1
	Total Number of Personnel Serving OSCE			12
4.	Head of military staff (Brussels)			1
5.	EU military staff (Brussels)			3
6.	Liaison Office of Ireland. PfP (Brussels)			3
7.	Permanent Representative to EU (Brussels)			4
8.	Military representatives/advisers on secondment to Department of Foreign Affairs
	(i)	Military adviser, Permanent Mission to UN, New York	1
	(ii)	Deputy military adviser, Permanent Mission to UN, New York	1
	(iii)	Military adviser, Irish Delegation to OSCE, Vienna	1
	(iv)	Military representative to partnership co-ordination cell/supreme	1
	Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Mons, Belgium
Total Number Defence Forces Personnel Serving Overseas				486