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

Sorry, our Defence Forces are operating every day, commission or no commission. We need to make sure they are trained to the standards that we expect of them and that they also demand in terms of international best practice. That is what this is about.

We may well be coming back in a number of months’ time to look to join more. We will have this discussion and I will have to justify it, if we choose to do that. We may well look to become observers on other PESCO missions to explore if there are other areas we would like to explore. The case for these four training projects stands up in its own right, regardless of whether there is a commission report coming forward or not. When the Deputy sees how we respond to the commission, she will see there are dozens of issues that we are trying to deal with. However, these are four specific areas where we believe we could add to the skill sets of the Defence Forces by participating with other partner countries in the EU, which are clearly benefiting from it. That is not only a hunch. We have been observers in these projects. We have watched how they are working. The recommendation has come back to me to say that these projects are worth investing our time in. That is what we are doing. As a civilian and as a Minister, it is not for me to question the ask from the military side, if they believe that this will add to the skill sets they are looking for. That addresses that point-----