Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is really regrettable that the Deputy has chosen to try to make this discussion party political and that he has been deliberately trying to misinform people. These are serious issues. We have war on our Continent at the moment and we are talking about capability issues and common training exercises where Ireland voluntarily chooses to train with other countries to try and build capacity within our own systems. He chooses to try and twist the presence of NATO, which is here at our request, to try to ensure that we are interoperable and that we meet the standards and benchmarks that we set for ourselves.