Mr. Declan Power:

Briefly, I come back to the reinforcement training packages, RTPs. The fact that a policy is in place does not always mean it is adhered to. That is sometimes one of the problems on UN missions. I served in South Sudan at one point and there was a mass killing of people from the Dinka tribe in a place called Bor, where the officer in charge of a UN contingent chose not to interpret that his mandate gave him the right to protect. In other words, he put the lives of his soldiers ahead of the lives of unarmed civilians who were killed in front of him. I do not think any Irish citizen, soldier, politician or officer would want to see such a thing. If we get involved in any kind of conflict management or peacekeeping mission, we need to ensure our forces have the capacity to do what they need to do.

I will make one point with regard to that. The committee might consider bringing in members of the Permanent Defence Forces Representative Association, PDFORRA, or the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, to hear from practitioners at the coalface about those and other matters pertaining to the defence Bill.